When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness

Learning Objectives

1. List the objective and subjective experience of the symptoms of major thought disorders and mood disorders.
2. Describe the forms of treatments available to people with major psychiatric disorders.
3. Identify ways to help improve medication compliance for patients with major psychiatric disorders.
4. Identify guidelines to teach caregivers and family members how to live as harmoniously as possible with patients with a major psychiatric disorder.
5. Determine realistic goals for a person with major psychiatric disorders.
6. Identify skills needed to communicate effectively with patients with major psychiatric disorder.
7. Determine how to best respond to delusions and hallucinations.
8. Identify interventions that will help minimize the possibility of angry outburst and violence in patients with a mental illness.
9. Identify how to help patients with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and a substance abuse disorder.