Karin Herman’s lectured for a group of 45 persons; patients, family, relatives, friends and others who attended the session on Schizophrenia. It was an interactive session and the participation was great.
MHF organized the session that is part of the public awareness program of the foundation and at the request of the family members dealing with the illness of loved ones at home.
After briefly explaining the understanding of psychosis Dr. Hermans gave the attendance the opportunity to write down 3 words they associate with psychosis. The notes confirmed that psychosis does not present an orderly package, not everyone has the same problems.
A mental Illness interferes with a persons capacity to meet life’s daily demands, it is very important to get the correct diagnosis in an early stage, regardless of how difficult it may seem.
A psychosis is not always schizophrenia it does affect families, caregivers and the patients social environment. Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder, preventing a person from getting a job a relationship and more, it affects a persons whole meaning of life.
Bizarre behavior in adolescents is not likely to attract attention, while the first 5 years is the most critical phase for effective treatment because each relapse increases the chance of treatment resistance and is a high risk for suicide. The benefits of early treatment are early recovery and less disruption of social and occupational life, decreased hospitalizations saving the government funding of high cost treatments.
3% of the population will be diagnosed with some form psychosis in the age range of 18 to 24 years. What helps are psycho education understanding and recognizing symptoms, helping persons to master their lives again and to regain self-esteem, medication and cognitive therapy.
The main concerns of family members are the lack of facilities to locally stabilize patients or to when necessary elevate them from the daily burden of caring. They feel supported by the foundation but regardless of the work done by the staff on occasions dangerous situations do occur for which there is still no real solution.