Opening caregiver minds: National Alliance for the Mentally Ill's (NAMI) provider education program

The belief that poor parenting and dysfunctional families give rise to ment al illness has been perpetuated by psychodynamic and family systems theorie s that lack supporting scientific evidence, and interventions based on thes e theories have failed to produce clinical improvements, Nevertheless the N ational Alliance for the Mentally ill (NAMI) found that many clinical train ing programs continue to teach these outdated theories and interventions an d that the mental health system is often destructive to family systems. Thi s article describes a new IO-week program that is designed to educate servi ce providers that will include families in the care of their chronically il l loved one, The program is based on a competence and adaptation rather tha n a pathology foundation and it shifts the discourse from causes to effects of illness. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.