Early Assessment and Support Alliance
Communication
EASA
Tips For Communication And Family Living
Most of the symptoms of psychosis have to do with perception and information processing. Psychosis directly affects a person’s ability to perceive, interpret and communicate information. Because of this, family members have to learn new communication skills.
A Few Key Tips:
- Psychosis generally makes people much more sensitive to emotional tones and stimulation.
- Be concrete and specific.
- Be careful about word choice to avoid communicating judgment.
- Provide consistent, sincere praise and positive feedback.
- After you speak, give the person plenty of time to digest the information and respond.
Reflective Listening:
The steps in reflective listening with a person who has a psychosis:
- Listen to what they’re saying. Look for elements of reality.
- Ask clarifying questions only.
- Give the person time to respond.
- Give the person time to respond.
- Begin to identify “common ground”- reality you can agree on, or a way of addressing the feelings the person is having.
Learning To Solve Problems:
- Don’t put all your energy into problems.
- When selecting where to focus, always prioritize safety and well-being.
- Focus on only one problem at a time.
- Articulate the problem in terms of the person or people who identified the problem, and no one else
- It is helpful to do this process in a group.
- Identify the problem in as behavioral, specific and concrete way as possible.
- Think about similar situations in the past and what worked then.
Developing A Family Agreement:
- There is a baseline of behavior with no exceptions
- Supportive does not mean permissive.
- Before a family meeting, make sure heads of household agree on baseline behavior and priority issues to address.
- Choose no more than one to two key issues to address at a time.
- Accept that your family member will not like the agreements.
- Everyone’s needs should be addressed.
EASA