Schizophrenia: Diagnosis & Treatment, 2nd Edition

Course overview

Mental health and mental illness are difficult concepts to define. Both health and illness have a basis in society's cultural, moral, ethical, and spiritual beliefs, providing a wide framework for understanding. As difficult as it may be to arrive at a universal definition of mental illness, certain elements are associated with how mental illness is perceived regardless of one's psychosocial heritage. Individuals in society evaluate another person's health within a specific cultural context and by the comprehensibility of that person's actions. Perhaps no other mental illness is as devastating and difficult to understand as schizophrenia. Affecting almost 1% of the population worldwide, the disorder knows no gender, ethnic, or cultural boundaries. For various reasons, mental illness has become increasingly visible. As society has advanced in medicine and technology, industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and globalization, the demand for healthcare services, and mental health services in particular, has greatly increased. It is estimated that 1 in 5 Americans has a diagnosable mental disorder. As a result, clinicians in a variety of practice settings are caring for clients with mental health issues and illnesses such as schizophrenia. This course provides the reader with an overview of schizophrenia, including its etiology, signs and symptoms, and treatment. Designed for social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists, this intermediate-level course will provide clinicians with current information under DSM-5 about schizophrenia and will suggest therapeutic interventions to assist them when working with clients who have schizophrenia.