Site Introduction
By tom ~ October 16th, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized.
I remain optimistic about everyone’s capacity to change.
I have worked in adult mental health services for more than 20 years. I want everyone to be optimistic while engaged in this important work we do. With this mindset we can be more creative; we can achieve much more.
What would happen if we believed people’s problems were solvable, even problems such as schizophrenia? Some clinicians and authors do, as you will see in these articles.
I feel we need to hear more about alternate ideas, to stimulate staff, keep them fresh and hopeful. I still read and thirst for great ideas that will make a difference. I read how two clinicians applied Solution-focussed therapy to people with alcohol problems. [Insoo Kim Berg & Scott D. Miller, “Working with the Problem Drinker: A Solution-Focussed Approach,” Norton, NY. 1992] They reported great success in an average of 4.6 treatment sessions, in a client group that many experienced staff do not enjoy. These authors love this client group; they get great satisfaction. Different ideas can generate hope and excitement in our work.
We don’t know what we don’t know. So I have collected various ideas that hold great potential. I do not hear them spoken about much. The ideas in the section on Linguistics [in my essay, “About Hope”] amazed me when I came across them. I hope you also appreciate their value. They are not recent ideas, nor is the family therapy approach I mention, but they are likely to be new to many readers.
Collectively these essays tell you why I am optimistic about the capacity for clients to recover, and more quickly than we often see.
Will these ideas stimulate greater hope in you? How can these and other new ideas find a place in mental health services? I hope you will spread these ideas and articles, share your own thoughts and questions?
The first three essays build on each other, and form a foundation for the others. Thus I recommend reading numbers one to three first. Only the first two are lengthy, but are important in creating the context for the remainder. More will be added, so if you wish to be notified of new articles, email me to be on the mailing list: tblack01@gmail.com
Note - for ease of reading one can increase the size of text by simultaneously using “Control” key and “+” ; and “Control” and “-” to reduce.