Qualitative methods are increasingly useful as psychiatry shifts from a
focus on symptom reduction to enabling people to live satisfying and
meaningful lives. It becomes important to achieve a deeper understanding
of the ways in which mental illness interferes with everyday life and
the ways in which people can learn to manage and minimize illness in
order to pursue their lives as fully as possible. Although qualitative
methods in psychiatry have seen a dramatic upsurge, relatively few
published studies use such methods specifically to explore the lives,
socio-culturally and experientially, of those with first-episode
psychosis.
This book highlights qualitative research in early psychosis. The first
half of the book centres on the individual lived experience of
psychosis--from the perspective of the individual, the family, and the
practitioner. The second half moves from the micro level to the macro,
focusing on broader system issues, including medical trainees'
encounters with first-episode psychosis in the emergency room and the
implementation of first-episode clinics in the UK and Australia. This
text is timely, as the proliferation of early-psychosis clinics
worldwide demands that we inquire into the subjective experience of
those impacted by psychosis and the social contexts within which it
occurs and is lived out.
Hearing Voices is the first in a series of titles from The Community
Health Systems Resource Group at The Hospital for Sick Children. This
series will educate researchers, policy-makers, students, practitioners,
and interested stakeholders on such topics as early intervention in
psychosis, aggressive-behaviour problems, eating-related disorders, and
marginalized youth in educational contexts.
