A New Book to Give Doctors the Information They Really Need to Help People with Schizophrenia

Why this project is needed

Many people don’t realise this but doctors in general medicine such as general practitioners and in emergency departments of hospitals still get only very basic training in helping people with mental health conditions. Yet they are often the first clinician that people will have contact with when they are in crisis and act as the “gatekeeper” in providing access to mental health care. There is a real need to provide doctors with high quality information about how they can better care for people with mental health conditions like schizophrenia when they see them. That is what this appeal aims to do.

Schizophrenia is one of the most misunderstood medical conditions that we know of. Most people only know about schizophrenia what they have read in the tabloid press and that is often not very sympathetic. But the public are not the only people who are misinformed about schizophrenia, there is also a serious lack of awareness amongst medical professionals in general medicine and by improving their awareness we can improve the lives of sufferers and the carers who desperately need the support of the doctors. Sufferers and carers alike often observe that doctors in general medicine have only a very basic knowledge of schizophrenia and this makes accessing the care they need much more difficult.

What this money will do

To try to improve the care that people with schizophrenia receive from their family doctor and emergency departments we have written a book aimed at doctors in general medicine. It contains guidance on how they can relate better to people with mental health conditions and the specific needs that those people have. This book contains much more insight than doctors can obtain from their medical textbooks. And now we want to publish the book, but we need your help. With the internet, publishing is much more accessible than it used to be but there are still costs like proofreading, graphic design and the publisher’s fees.

So What is schizophrenia?

In short schizophrenia is an illness of the brain that affects the way the mind works causing disturbed thinking and often disturbed behaviour. About a quarter of a million people in the UK are currently being treated for schizophrenia. It affects mainly the young, men and women alike, and cuts across all races and social classes. There have been many famous people who have suffered from schizophrenia such as John Nash the Nobel mathematician and Nijinsky the great ballet dancer. Treatments are now very effective and with good psychiatric care most sufferers will make a substantial recovery but this can sometimes take a number of years. Sadly along the way a proportion of the sufferers who fail to recover will die usually by their own hand. If you want to know more about schizophrenia have a look at our website.

What is Living with Schizophrenia?

In 2013 we founded the www.Livingwithschizophrenia website which provides information about this condition to sufferers and carers around the world. The website has been hugely successful but runs on a shoestring and now we need to widen our work and reach out to doctors who are in the front line of providing care to sufferers. No one else is doing this work which is so desperately needed. And our website is no longer just for people in the UK. We now have a global reach with over half of our readers being in other parts of the world. We do not receive any funding from the government or National Health Service or from the large pharmaceutical companies. Nor do we host advertising on our site or sell on our subscribers list. We rely on donations from people like you to enable us to do this work.

Here’s what some of the readers of our website have said about us recently:

“With gratitude I want to present my thanks to the staff behind this beneficial site”

“I found the information sheets to be very well written and very helpful.”

“My reason for contacting you is to say thank you, keep up the good work. It is good to know I am not alone.”

What You Can Do

To make this project happen we need your help by making a donation. We must raise £1,750 to get this book published but any amount you can give would help. We know that money can be tight but even small amounts will help us towards our goal. You have the power today to change many lives for the better. If you are not able to donate today then perhaps you could help by sharing this page with your friends.

Many thanks for helping in any way you can.