When Living at Home Is a Good Idea by Dean A. Haycock, Ph.D.
Someone starting to make progress against the challenges of schizophrenia should consider living at home if she benefits from the support of relatives. A supportive home environment will aid progress.
Treatment Options for People with Schizophrenia
Twenty-four-hour inpatient care in a general hospital psychiatric unit
Private, public, or state psychiatric hospital
Federal psychiatric hospital
Veterans Administration hospital
Partial hospitalization or day care
Residential care, supported housing
Community mental health center
Psychiatrist or other mental health practitioner office
Support group
Source: the American Psychiatric Association
A Base for Treatment with Moral Support
If the home offers a safe haven from which the patient can maintain a treatment regimen and make progress regaining social and cognitive skills, then living at home is ideal. In addition, if continuing to live at home eases financial burdens on the patient and her family, both parties can benefit from working out a suitable domestic living arrangement.
Table 14-1: Benefits of Living at Home
The Relatives |
The Patient |
Allows close health monitoring |
Assured care at all times |
Opportunities to help recovery |
Encouragement, family available to help |
Less expensive |
Possibility of saving money |
Less worry about consumer's safety |
Less time spent alone |
Companionship |
Familiar companion(s) |
Adapted from Mueser and Gingerich, The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia.
With new antipsychotic medication, better therapies, and a treatment team, living at home has become the norm. It is important that the patient is able help to around the house after a treatment program is agreed upon and implemented. She should have assigned chores that she agrees to complete. She should be able to agree to, and abide by, the rules of the house. The home should not be turned into an asylum. It should be a base for recovery.
Patients who live at home may have an increased chance of success if they are female, function at a high level, have social contacts outside the home, do not share the home with siblings, and have a family capable of providing the support and love needed to make the arrangement work, according to Rebecca Woolis in When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness.
<B>Living Independently</B></h2>
<p>The question of whether or not someone should move from a family home into her own place is a personal one and depends on the ability of the patient to care for herself. The person should be able to benefit from therapy outside the hospital, the goal of which is to improve her mental condition to make her as independent as possible. Consumers with a high level of functioning do it routinely. The sooner the patient can get on with life independently, the better.</p>
<p><B>Table 14-2: Benefits of Living in Independently or Semi-Independently</B></p>
<table frame="all" width="100%">
<tgroup cols="2">
<colspec colname="col1" colnum="1" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/>
<colspec colname="col2" colnum="2" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><p><B><B>The Relatives</B></B></p></td>
<td><p><B><B>The Patient</B></B></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Less daily stress and family conflict</p></td>
<td><p>Less stress, greater privacy</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>More freedom</p></td>
<td><p>Improved sense of self-esteem, independence, self-reliance</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Chance to recover from caregiver burnout</p></td>
<td><p>Good training for complete independence</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<p>Adapted from Mueser and Gingerich, The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia.</p>
<p>The decision concerning where a patient should live and receive care depends on many factors. These factors can, and most likely will, change over time and will require adjustment in therapy. The most important factor should be the patient's mental condition. In reality, insurance coverage and your ability to pay for different types of care will have an impact on the type of therapy a person may receive. Treatment in a private psychiatric hospital, for example, may be too expensive for many people.</p>
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