Women with serious mental illness : gender-sensitive and recovery-oriented care

Women with serious mental illness (SMI) include those with schizophrenia, severe depression, bipolar disorder, and/or complex posttraumatic stress disorder whose illnesses significantly impair daily functioning. While these women commonly present in psychotherapy and research samples, their needs are rarely addressed in academic literature and mental health training programs. Women with Serious Mental Illness focuses on these women's experiences, including the history of mistreatment, marginalization, and oppression they have encountered within their everyday lives and within the mental health system. With decades of combined clinical experience, Drs. Lauren Mizock and Erika Carr offer evidence-based strategies for mental health professionals working with this overlooked population. Built on a framework of feminist theory, concepts on the intersectionality of oppression, and a more holistic view of recovery, the book examines the impact of racism, sexual objectification, trauma, relationships, work, and class on the development and presentation of symptoms of mental illness in these women. These discussions are then synthesized into an effective treatment intervention, Gender-Sensitive and Recovery-Oriented Care (G-ROC), which values an equal therapeutic relationship and validates the client as an expert on their own mental health. Chapters include worksheets, discussion questions, and case narratives for easy practical application in research or training programs. Women with Serious Mental Illness underscores the need for improved care for women, men, and gender nonbinary people with serious mental illness. Using these tools, clients can begin the process of seeking hope, empowerment, and self-determination beyond the effects of mental illness. "The book, Women with Serious Mental Illness: Gender-Sensitive and Recovery-Oriented Care, calls attention to a topic and population that has been overlooked in research and psychotherapy - women with serious mental illnesses (i.e., schizophrenia, severe depression, bipolar disorder, and complex posttraumatic stress disorder). Women with Serious Mental Illness focuses on the history of mistreatment, marginalization, and oppression they have encountered in the general public and within the mental health system. This book provides an overview of recovery-oriented care for women with serious mental illness - a process of seeking hope, empowerment, and self-determination beyond the effects of mental illness. Chapters provide a historical overview of the treatment of women with mental illness, their resilience and recovery experiences, as well as issues pertaining to relationships, work, class, culture, trauma, and sexuality. This book also offers the new model of Gender-Sensitive and Recovery Oriented Care (G-ROC) for working with this group from a gender-sensitive framework. The book is a useful tool for mental health educators and providers, with each chapter containing case studies, clinical strategies lists, discussion questions, experiential activities, diagrams, and worksheets that can be completed with clients, students, and peers"-- Provided by publisher 'Women with Serious Mental Illness' calls attention to a topic and a population that have been overlooked in research and psychotherapy - women with serious mental illnesses (schizophrenia, severe depression, bipolar disorder, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder). The text focuses on the history of mistreatment, marginalization, and oppression women with serious mental illness have encountered, not only from the general public but within the mental health system as well. This work provides an overview of recovery-oriented care for women with serious mental illness - a process of seeking hope, empowerment, and self-determination beyond the effects of mental illness. The authors provide a historical overview of the treatment of women with mental illness, their resilience and recovery experiences, and issues pertaining to relationships, work, class, culture, trauma, and sexuality Cover Women with Serious Mental Illness Copyright Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. History of the Mistreatment of Women with Serious Mental Illness 3. Women with Serious Mental Illness, Resilience, and the Recovery Movement 4. Motherhood, Family, and Relationships for Women with Serious Mental Illness 5. Work and Class Among Women with Serious Mental Illness 6. Cultural Factors Among Women with Serious Mental Illness: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Spirituality 7. Trauma and Sexual Objectification of Women with Serious Mental Illness 8. Preventing Retraumatization of Women with Serious Mental Illness 9. Women’s Empowerment and Recovery-​Oriented Care: A New Intervention Model About the Authors Bibliography Index Women with Serious Mental Illness: Gender-Sensitive and Recovery-Oriented Care, calls attention to a topic and population that has been overlooked in literature - women with serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, severe depression, bipolar disorder, and complex posttraumatic stress disorder.