Serious Mental Illness

respectively Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Philosophy, The University of Western Ontario, Canada; Associate Professor, Department of Community Mental Health, Haifa University, Israel

• Introduction: Background and overview. Framework. Foundations and ethics of person-centered approaches to individuals with serious mental illness. Historical antecedents of contemporary person-centered approaches to serious mental illness. Moral treatment in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Rogerian and related psychotherapies in the twentieth century. Magnitude of the problem. Mood disorders: major depressive disorder and bipolar disorders. Schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. The person's experience of the illness. The lived experience: narratives through the lens of wellness. The relationship between the person with a serious mental illness and his or her disorder. Understanding the context of the individual. Collaborating with families of people with serious mental illness. Trans-cultural issues in person-centered care for people with serious mental illness. Environmental interventions in relation to people with serious mental illness. Mental health systems and policy in relation to people with serious mental illness. The person/patient-clinician relationship. Therapeutic relationships with people with serious mental illness. Clinical communications with persons who have serious mental illnesses. Shared/collaborative care for people with serious mental illness. Serious mental illness of special populations. Person-centered approaches for adolescents with serious mental illness. Dual diagnosis: individualized approach. Serious mental illness: person-centered approaches in a forensic psychiatry setting. Treatment of co-occurring substance use disorders using shared decision making and electronic decision-support systems. Management and finding common ground. Person-centered assessment of people with serious mental illness. Person-centered approaches to psychopharmacology for people with serious mental illness. Person-centered individual psychotherapy for adults with serious mental illness. Cognitive and psychiatric rehabilitation: person-centered ingredients for success. Prevention and health promotion. Cultivating physical health and wellness utilising a person-centered approach. Self-help and peer-operated services. Constraints. Some sober reflections on person-centered care. Academic activities. Implications of serious mental illness for evidence-based practices. Educating service providers and researchers in person-centered principles related to serious mental illness. Conclusion. Making sure the person is involved in person-centered care.