Pamphlet #17b:
Schizophrenia: A Few Guidelines For Family & Friends
- Do all you can, in a calm and reasonable way, to persuade your relative to take and stay on the prescribed medication.
- Provide a calm, supportive, stress-free atmosphere.
- Adjust your expectations to what is realistic
- Avoid being too probing or inquisitive while still inviting the person to share thoughts and experience.
- Avoid unnecessary arguments, particularly when they concern the person's delusions. You should indicate that you know the person is sincere in his beliefs, although you cannot share them.
- Try to be gentle and low-key at all times. The person may find it difficult to cope with your excitement or enthusiasm or anger about daily events.
- Encourage structure in the person's life: regular rising, attention to personal hygiene, etc.
- Remember that many of the things that you don't like about the person are symptoms of the illness. Try and separate these out from the person underneath. His/her inability to shower is not just willfulness.
- Enlist the person's help with household tasks such as cooking, gardening, laundry. Give one task at a time.
- Social gatherings are very difficult for people with schizophrenia to handle. Encourage participation where only one or two people are present.
- The person is often lonely because his symptoms prevent him from continuing past friendships. Family members are often his/her only friends.
- When difficulties arise it is useful to attend a support group where there are others who have solved similar problems. Sharing with others often gives renewed hope and strength.
