NAMI HAMILTON COUNTY

3805 Edwards Road Suite 130 Cincinnati OH 45209

Tel. 513-351-3500  |  Fax 513-351-6352 |  info@nami-hc.org
 
Help support people with mental illness and their families

 

Communicating with a person with a mental illness

 

Persons with a psychiatric disability at times can:

We must be willing to:
 Have trouble with reality.  Be simple, truthful.
 Be fearful.  Stay calm.
 Be insecure.  Be accepting.
 Have trouble concentrating.  Be brief, repeat.
 Be overstimulated.  Limit input, not force discussion.
 Easily become agitated.  Recognize agitation, allow escape.
 Have poor judgment.  Not expect rational discussion.
 Be preoccupied.  Get attention first.
 Be withdrawn.  Initiate relevant conversation.
 Have changing emotions.  Disregard.
 Have changing plans.  Keep to one plan.
 Have little empathy for you.  Recognize their lack of empathy as a symptom of their disability.
 Believe delusions.  Ignore, don't argue.
 Have low self-esteem and lack of motivation.  Stay positive...if circumstances so dictate.
 
Adapted from a talk given by Christopher Amenson, Ph.D., to the San Luis Obispo chapter of the California Alliance for the Mentally III (CAMI).