Learning about Schizophrenia: Rays of Hope

A Reference Manual for Families & Caregivers

Revised Fourth Edition (2012)

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To download the 2012 fourth revised edition of Rays of Hope (PDF), please click here.

Printed copies of Rays of Hope are available from the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia at a cost of $10.00 (including shipping).  To order a copy with payment by Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, please call (902) 465-2601 or 1-800-465-2601 (toll-free in Nova Scotia), or send a cheque or money order to:

Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia
Room B-23, Purdy Building
P.O. Box 1004
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B2Y 3Z9

Neurocognition and Social Cognition in Schizophrenia Patients: Basic Concepts and Treatment

Please click here to read the description of this book.

Voices of Recovery

From the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation website:

Voices of Recovery consists of two different types of “voices.” The first “voice” is a selection of recovery stories that were published in the Coping With column of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal from the years 2000 through 2008. The second “voice” is a collection of PhotoVoice projects, which includes a photograph and a short narrative explaining the personal meaning behind the picture from the photographer’s point of view. These inspirational contributions remind us that recovery is not only possible--recovery is real!


Table of Contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1: Recovery
• Chapter 2: Increasing Knowledge and Control
• Chapter 3: Managing Life's Stresses
• Chapter 4: Enhancing Personal Meaning
• Chapter 5: Building Personal Support
• Chapter 6: Setting Personal Goals
  

Citation: McNamara, S. (Ed). (2009). Voices of recovery. Boston: Boston University, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation.

Also see:

The Recovery Workbook

Book review in the Los Angeles Times

Published February 1st:

By Susan Salter Reynolds

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
A Novel
By Joanne Greenberg
Holt: 304 pp., $15 paper

Since its initial publication in 1964, this classic story of a young girl's diagnosis and treatment for schizophrenia has sold millions of copies and inspired similar ventures like Susanna Kaysen's "Girl, Interrupted" and Augusten Burroughs' "Running With Scissors."

This paperback edition has a new afterword by the author, an essay that reveals just how painful the stigma of schizophrenia was in those days. Joanne Greenberg was institutionalized from age 15 to 19; she left the hospital in 1951 and has returned only once, in 1953. Many years were spent lying about her past; Greenberg was forced to show "sanity papers" before she could take classes at a local college -- there was no guarantee her privacy would be respected.

"I did not write 'Rose Garden' as therapy," Greenberg writes. "I wanted to show what being mentally ill felt like, how it felt to be so deeply estranged from the world." It's a pioneering, unforgettable and generous book.

Schizophrenia: Medicine's Mystery - Society's Shame (Paperback, 2008)

From Amazon.com:

Written by a medical writer and family member of someone suffering from schizophrenia, this book outlines all of the issues involved with schizophrenia and its treatment including stigma, history, causes, physiological changes in the brain, and best treatments. It is an ideal reference and support for family members and others interested in this disease. It is also suitable as supplementary reading for students in health care fields (including medicine and nursing), psychology, social work and any occupation that needs solid information about schizophrenia. The book is recommended by the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders on its website.

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Pathways to Inclusion

Building a New Story with People and Communities

A new book by Canadians John Lord and Peggy Hutchison:

Pathways to Inclusion: Building a New Story with People and Communities is an examination of various perspectives on disability and provides insightful discussion on the current need for social innovation to move vulnerable citizens from areas of exclusion to social inclusion.

Pathways to Inclusion addresses the organizational strategies that have been used in the past and highlights areas for change. Human service organizations are examined, pinpointing common characteristics that have led to improved quality of life for people with disabilities and other vulnerable citizens. This book includes a discussion of discriminatory social policy and outlines characteristics of pathways to inclusion, detailing the need for social innovation and a New Story.

Well-researched, with clear dialogue and interspersed with insightful anecdotes, Pathways to Inclusion inspires change within both human services and the greater community. This book is an invaluable resource to educators, advocates, citizens, families, and practitioners in the fields of disability studies, aging, and related human services.

About the Authors

John Lord is a community researcher and human service consultant. He was a founder of the Centre for Research and Education in Human Services, and the Centre's first Director from 1982 to 1995. John has published widely in the areas of deinstitutionalization, independent living, empowerment, and innovative community supports for vulnerable citizens. John has been the co-founder of several innovations, including the Support Clusters Project, the Welcoming Home Initiative, and Foundations for Life.

Peggy Hutchison is a Professor in Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. She was a founder of the Centre for Research and Education in Human Services. She has been actively involved in research, education, and advocacy related to inclusion for the past twenty-five years both nationally and internationally. Her areas of interest include: empowerment, inclusion, IL movement, relationships, and community building. In addition, she is a long time editor of the Journal of Leisurability and advisor for Kitchener-Waterloo People First.

Thanks go to the National Network for Mental Health for bringing this book to my attention.

Listen to the Wind

A Journey in Schizophrenia

A portion of the proceeds from sales of this book are donated to the Schizophrenia Scoiety of Nova Scotia. To order Listen to the Wind, please click here.

From the Breton Books website:

A rare and fascinating book, this is Mary Ellen Tramble’s haunting, tender autobiography of her life with schizophrenia. With the power and detail of a novel, and laced with her small, strong poems, it is, as well, an extraordinary and moving work of art. “Listen to the Wind” displays the tense and terrifying sentences, the sudden self-mocking and degradation, the grand insights that take Tramble (and us) high on the ferris wheel of emotions—and then toss us overboard for the plunge [a person living with schizophrenia] knows only too well. In “Listen to the Wind,” Mary Ellen Tramble has made of her struggle a lasting piece of extraordinary writing. We can only be grateful for her determination to record, and her courage and generosity to share. “A monument to the tenacity of the human spirit in its struggle to face mysterious terrors, maintain hope and avoid despair.” — Sheldon Currie, author of “The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum” "For all of the pain and fear in ‘Listen to the Wind,’ there is also great love and beauty.” — Patrick F. Walsh, editor and author of “The History of Antigonish”

176pages . $14.95 . ISBN 1-895415-56-X . Breton Books

The SSNS's Online Library Catalogue

The SSNS has almost completed placing its entire library catalogue online. To browse the catalogue, click here.

If you are interested in borrowing a book, send an email to ssns@ns.sympatico.ca or call 1-800-465-2601 (toll-free anywhere in Nova Scotia).

We thank Caregivers Nova Scotia for bringing LibraryThing to our attention.

(Note: The SSNS library is not exactly as illustrated :)

Best of 2006

NAMI's picks for the best books and movies of the year. For example:

Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia, by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro, M.D.; New York, St. Martin's Press, 2005, 318 pages, $24.95.