Borderline personality disorder is a multidimensional disorder best considered as severe personality dysfunction. Around 2% of the population are thought to meet the criteria for the disorder, with approximately 1 in 10,000 people experiencing the most severe difficulties. This group is over-represented in the challenges facing mental health services.

Once seen as 'untreatable', people meeting diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder are all too often mistreated and misdiagnosed, resulting in prolonged and unhelpful relationships with services that are taxing to clients and clinicians alike.

Borderline Personality Disorder: A Practical Guide for Treatment draws on the latest research and clinical experience to provide an accessible and practical summary of treatment options. It provides hope and evidence that people meeting diagnostic criteria for the disorder can be treated effectively and successfully.

The book presents a pragmatic approach to care to be read by all members of mental health and substance use teams including psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, counsellors, mental health nurses and social workers.

Over the past two decades considerable progress has been made in developing specialist psychosocial treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD), yet the majority of people with BPD receive treatment within generalist mental health services, rather than specialist treatment centres. This is a book for general mental health professionals who treat people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). It offers practical guidance on how to help people with BPD with advice based on research evidence. After a discussion of the symptoms of BPD, the authors review all the generalist treatment interventions that have resulted in good outcomes in randomised controlled trials, when compared with specialist treatments, and summarise the effective components of these interventions. The treatment strategies are organised into a structured approach called Structured Clinical Management (SCM), which can be delivered by general mental health professionals without extensive additional training. The heart of the book outlines the principles underpinning SCM and offers a step-by-step guide to the clinical intervention. Practitioners can learn the interventions easily and develop more confidence in treating people with BPD. In addition, a chapter is devoted to how to help families - an issue commonly neglected when treating patients with BPD. Finally the authors discuss the top 10 strategies for delivering treatment and outline how the general mental health clinician can deliver these strategies competently.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a psychiatric condition that affects nearly 2% of the general population, predominantly women. Symptoms of BPD include impulsivity, mood swings, unstable intense relationships and feelings of chronic emptiness. Research on BPD has lagged behind that on other mental health conditions, such as depression and psychosis, primarily due to the lack of evidence of effective treatment but also due to the stigma historically associated with the condition. Fortunately this situation is changing, with improved treatments now available and improved clinician/organizational willingness to engage with those with a diagnosis of BPD. This candid book collaboratively co-authored by a person recovered from BPD and a BPD specialist therapist is written specifically for people with BPD (with support teams, including family, friends and clinicians also likely to benefit from reading the book). This authoritative and easily readable guide provides a compassionate understanding of the condition, plenty of in-depth practical recovery strategies and credible and realistic hope for recovery. The authors draw from the latest research and share years of personal and professional experience that brings the book alive. Review comments from Vice-President, National Education Alliance for BPD and Director, Middle Path (BPD advocacy organizations) include "most down-to-earth, accessible book for people with BPD" and "tremendous and potentially life-changing gift".