More than fifty million people a year are diagnosed with some form of mental illness. It spares no sex, race, age, ethnicity, or income level. And left untreated, mental disorders can devastate our families and communities. Family members and friends are often the first to realize when someone has a problem, but it is hard to know how to help or where to turn. Our mental health system can feel like a bewildering and frustrating maze. How can you tell that someone has a mental illness? What are the first and best steps for you to take? Where do you go to find the right care?

The Family Guide to Mental Health Care is the first comprehensive print resource for the millions of people who have loved ones suffering from some kind of mental illness. In this book, families can find the answers to their most urgent questions. What medications are helpful and are some as dangerous as I think? Is there a way to navigate privacy laws so I can discuss my adult daughter s treatment with her doctor? Is my teenager experiencing typical adolescent distress or an illness? From understanding depression, bipolar illness and anxiety to eating and traumatic disorders, schizophrenia, and much more, readers will learn what to do and how to help.

Real-life scenarios and authoritative information are written in a compassionate, reader-friendly way, including checklists to bring to a doctor s appointment so you can ask the right questions. For readers who fear they will never see the light at the end of the tunnel, this book gives hope and a path forward.

As one of the nation s leading voices on quality care in mental health, Dr. Lloyd Sederer has played a singular role in advancing services for those with mental illness. Now, the wealth of his expertise and clear guidance is at your disposal. From the first signs of a problem to sorting through the variety of treatment options, you and your family will be able to walk into a doctor s office know what to do and what to ask."

The past several decades of price wars in medicine have taken their toll& mdash;and nowhere has the impact been greater than in the field of psychiatry. Today, patients and physicians alike are protesting& mdash;louder than ever& mdash;that quality patient care is being sacrificed to cost-cutting goals.

"What is quality patient care"& #63; Quality measures (i.e., validity, reliability, feasibility, usability, and comparability) link the care rendered to the results (i.e., outcomes) of that care, enabling us to define, measure, publicly report, compare, and ultimately improve care.

This remarkable volume offers a critical analysis of outcome assessment, in psychiatry, which allows us to assess not only the measurable domains (i.e., symptoms, functioning, quality of life, and perception of care), but also the standards and instruments used to judge the quality of care.

Divided into three major sections, this comprehensive textbook is more than just an inventory or nosology of measures; rather, it holds existing instruments to clear standards. "Section I, Understanding Outcomes Assessment," details the many fundamental concepts that underlie outcome measurement, including a & ldquo;situational analysis& rdquo; of outcome assessment, the scientific underpinnings of the field, and its important constructs (e.g., process and outcome, efficacy and effectiveness, basis statistics, quality improvement).

"Section II, A Critical Review of the Instruments," critiques a wide variety of instruments that have high clinical utility, are in the public domain or of low cost and burden, and meet many of the quality standards of validity, reliability, feasibility, usability, andcomparability. Organized by patient population (age, diagnoses, and disorders), these chapters describe both general and disorder-specific measures, with respondents that include patients, families, and clinicians. Data generated by these instruments therefore can be used to assess outcomes for individual patients, populations, and programs.

"Section III, Challenges and Opportunities," discusses the obstacles to implementing assessment programs, regulatory and accreditation demands, confidentiality and training, and the technology of measurement and proven solutions, including a final chapter on future innovations using various types of brain imaging; laboratory tests (e.g., for homovanillic acid); immunological tests (e.g., G-protein and plasma prolactin, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis); and acoustic (e.g., the & ldquo;flat affect& rdquo; of a patient& rsquo;s voice) and other technological tests.

The three editors of this meticulously researched and written compilation have brought together the work of 48 distinguished contributors who, responding to today& rsquo;s mandate of public accountability, provide clinicians and clinical leaders with the tools they need to meaningfully incorporate quality measurement into clinical practice.

Mental health and substance use disorders are ubiquitous conditions that have an enormous impact on individuals and families, and often lead to social and financial burdens, and sometimes catastrophes. Current Controversies in Mental Health and Addictions: An Expert's Anthology is a compilation of book and movie reviews, opinion blogs, and online articles on mental health and addiction. This compelling anthology helps readers understand and apply specific and every day mental health problems and their solutions. The material is organized into sections that address topics such as substance use, abuse, and addiction; borderline personality disorder; depression and bipolar disorders; suicide; and recovery. The high-interest content includes selections on how people with mental illnesses can have lives of contribution and how to keep them from becoming violent; treatment choices for alcoholism and substance use disorders; mental health law; adverse childhood experiences; wartime and other post-traumatic stress disorders; biomarkers for depression; and more. Current Controversies in Mental Health and Addictions provides a wealth of valuable information and insight for mental health professionals and lay readers alike. Applicable to numerous disciplines and students at various points in their pre-professional education, the book is particularly well-suited to courses in psychology, social work, counseling, nursing, addiction, and pre-medicine.

THE DIAGNOSTIC MANUAL OF MISHEGAS (DMOM) is a delightful parody of the American Psychiatric Association's "Bible of psychiatry," the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). In this playful send-up of the DSM, the authors-all of whom are distinguished writers with deep roots in the field of mental health-cut through the hundreds of categories in the 1000-page D.S.M. by dividing all mental disorders into two realms: mishegas major and mishegas minor. And for each of the sub-categories it analyzes-spilkes major (and spilkes minor), yenta, kvetch, alter kocker, shnorrer, dementia-with-benefits, etc.- it provides light-hearted anecdotes that not only illustrate the diagnostic category, but also make you plotz with laughter. THE DMOM will enable readers to transform ordinary tsuris and mishegas-the glooms, blues, angsts, and general chazzerie of their lives-into transcendent and easy-to-understand categories. It will turn kvetching into kvelling and guilt into gelt, so that readers will learn to live at peace with their inner mishegas and to treasure its precious and life-giving absurdities. A perfect gift for Mental Health Month (May), Father's Day, or for your favorite mishugenah friend or relative any time of the year, THE DMOM is sure to keep readers laughing long after the last page is read.

In Improving Mental Health: Four Secrets in Plain Sight, Dr. Lloyd Sederer draws upon four decades of diverse clinical practice, mental health research and public health experience to create a memorable volume that is as elegant as it is instructive. The book aims to help clinicians improve the lives of their patients-and patients to improve their own lives-by identifying these secrets and taking action in ways that can work immediately, closing the science-to-practice gap. In addition to mental health and primary care clinicians, patients and their families will find the book's many stories, clinical examples and cultural references fascinating and illuminating. The book's four foundational truths, all hiding in plain sight and all eminently actionable, are * Behavior serves a purpose. The search for meaning and the identification and communication value of a behavior are too often overlooked aspects of mental health care and a lost opportunity with and for patients and their families. * The power of attachment. The force of attachment as a human need and drive must be harnessed if we are to change painful and problem behaviors. Relationships are the royal road to remedying human suffering-both individual and collective. * As a rule, less is more. Mental health treatments, both medical and psychosocial, have often been aggressive, from high doses of drugs to intensive sessions and psychic confrontation in individual and group psychotherapy. Unfortunately, these high risk efforts infrequently provide help and often have unwanted and problematic effects. Primum non nocere-first, do no harm-is the first law of medicine. * Chronic stress is the enemy. From adverse childhood experiences to posttraumatic stress, chronic stress can be an underlying factor in the development of many mental and physical disorders. However, chronic stress can be understood and contained, thereby reducing its damage. Dr. Sederer synthesizes the knowledge gained through his considerable experience as a psychiatrist with insights gleaned from history, research and literature to address the four truths in a systematic, yet lively, manner. The result is a book of rare grace. Improving Mental Health: Four Secrets in Plain Sight will be a touchstone for the clinician and general reader alike.

More than fifty million people a year are diagnosed with some form of mental illness. It spares no sex, race, age, ethnicity, or income level. And left untreated, mental disorders can devastate our families and communities. Family members and friends are often the first to realize when someone has a problem, but it is hard to know how to help or where to turn. Our mental health system can feel like a bewildering and frustrating maze. How can you tell that someone has a mental illness? What are the first and best steps for you to take? Where do you go to find the right care?

The Family Guide to Mental Health Care is the first comprehensive print resource for the millions of people who have loved ones suffering from some kind of mental illness. In this book, families can find the answers to their most urgent questions. What medications are helpful and are some as dangerous as I think? Is there a way to navigate privacy laws so I can discuss my adult daughter s treatment with her doctor? Is my teenager experiencing typical adolescent distress or an illness? From understanding depression, bipolar illness and anxiety to eating and traumatic disorders, schizophrenia, and much more, readers will learn what to do and how to help.

Real-life scenarios and authoritative information are written in a compassionate, reader-friendly way, including checklists to bring to a doctor s appointment so you can ask the right questions. For readers who fear they will never see the light at the end of the tunnel, this book gives hope and a path forward.

As one of the nation s leading voices on quality care in mental health, Dr. Lloyd Sederer has played a singular role in advancing services for those with mental illness. Now, the wealth of his expertise and clear guidance is at your disposal. From the first signs of a problem to sorting through the variety of treatment options, you and your family will be able to walk into a doctor s office know what to do and what to ask."