Introduction – 11 layers of treatment resistant psychosis – discovery of a formula
The Communication Model is a tool to be used to help individuals who suffer from treatment resistant psychosis. Treatment resistant psychosis can be defined through the standards of the Medical model. Treatment resistant psychosis has eleven (11) layers to it. It consists of specific symptoms stemming from serious mental illness, such as Major Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. What makes treatment resistant psychosis different than regular psychosis is the fact that even when medications are being applied the symptoms prevail.
Eleven (11) layers of treatment resistant psychosis
- Patient takes the prescribed psychiatric medications on a regular basis but the symptoms persist.
- Patient has taken the medication for a long time but the side-effects prevail
- Pt. does not have access to a proper home, doctor nor prescription and is not receiving the proper medical care
- Pt. shows signs of schizophrenia and lives on the streets without ever having been medicated
- Pt. is considered to have behaviour problems versus a serious mental illness
- Pt. is considered to have a personality disorder on top of schizophrenia which contributes to having symptoms which worsen over-time – often diagnosed as untreatable
- Pt. refuses to take medication and lands in jail receiving no further treatments
- Pt. has too much shame to want to seek help for his/her psychosis
- Pt. does not have insight into his/her mental illness
- Pt. experiences dissociation
- Pt. experiences amnesia
Solution-focussed treatment resistant schizophrenia
The Communication Model is a friendly non-coercive intervention that is intended to provide short-term alleviation of mental distress, like applying First Aid to someone who had an accident.
It is a way to de-escalate mental distress a-la-moment. For example, let’s say a person with schizophrenia is standing on someone’s property and screaming at the oranges to stop talking to him, the neighbours telephone the police and the police arrive on-scene, as well as the Mental Health and Addictions Practitioner with a clip-board and paper. What would happen is the police and the Mental Health and Addictions Practitioner will arrive on-scene together and they will approach the individual with serious mental illness together. The first step is to find out what happened. When the individual shows signs of symptoms of serious mental illness, then the Mental Health and Addictions Practitioner will step in, and start to verbally communicate with the individual experiencing the mental distress. Once the verbal communication indicates delusions, hallucinations, flat-affect, bizarre language, disorientation or confusion – then the first step would be to acknowledge the emotion that the individual with SMI is experiencing. Then when the situation on the scene is de-escalated, then the individual in question would be asked if he / she would like to participate, out-of-free-will in the Communication Model. On consent, the Communication Model will be applied. That means that the feeling and the experience of the individual in question, will be explored through words and through the creation of an abstract drawing which is the intervention of the Communication Model by application of the triangle method. This process is intended to calm the individual with SMI down and alleviate any emotional distress, to the level of retaining logic and rationality. Once the Communication Model has achieved the containment of the psychosis out-break (psychotic break) then the next step would be to determine if the individual has supports that can help him / her or if the individual needs to get emergency psychiatric medical treatment. The police and the Mental Health & Addictions Practitioner will then drive the individual to the chosen destination to receive the secondary treatment.
Conclusion
In order to conduct this level of connection between person with serious mental illness and Mental Health and Addictions Practitioner one project needs to be conducted. This project involves flying to Kingston Ontario and engaging with one of the four hundred and nineteen (419) currently mentally ill diagnosed inmates, who are Federally incarcerated. The concept is that the Mental Health and Addictions Practitioner will apply the Communication Model, on consent of one prisoner. It is the intention to apply the Communication Model for fifteen (15) hours, 5 hours per week for three weeks. Then after this, the prisoner will then be instructed to share this approach with one other prisoner. He then teaches the method to the second volunteer / incarcerated / Federal / prisoner / who is diagnosed as being mentally ill – and so-forth. The process is intended to create a chain-reaction in the prison cell improving the quality of individualism and at the same time creating a sense of community by sharing situations.
In order to do this part, there needs to be some organizing (letter to the executive director of the Federal Jails, finding a volunteer who out of free-will consents to participating in this concept. Then once that is secured, organizing dates to conduct the Communication Model, organizing a place to stay there for three weeks, organizing a rental vehicle, organizing time slotted schedules, conducting everything and then returning back to Victoria British Columbia after completing the task).
Estimated costs: to be determined
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