Seizing an opportunity to take advantage of an Office of Mental Health (OMH) funding focus on "best practices" for the upcoming year, NAMI-NYC Metro advocates are stressing psychoeducation as one to go for and urging NAMI to take a stronger stance in this area.

Properly run family education programs reduce patient relapses by more than 50%, reported  a 1995 National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-sponsored study called PORT (for Patient Outcomes Research Team). It was an exhaustive compilation of research on effective treatments for schizophrenia and is considered one of the most authoritative benchmarks in mental health. Although most of its recommendations dealt with medication, family psychoeducation was cited as one of two non-medication approaches most likely to succeed (along with Assertive Community Treatment - ACT).

Since psychoeducation is rated as one of the best, if not THE best, practice, NAMI members must unite in supporting this program and in advocating for its implementation throughout the state, urges Jim Reiser, who chairs the Media and Advocacy Committee. Besides NAMI's voluntary Family-to-Family program, NAMI should also advocate that every hospital with a psychiatric department should provide a family education unit available for families in crisis.

Despite the strong argument that family education is the best evidenced-based practice, most state and local mental health systems have neglected this practice, Reiser points out.

Several states that have implemented family psychoeducation have reported changed attitudinal mindsets of clinicians and social workers. Rather than looking at families as a "pathological" influence or hindrance, trained and enlightened clinicians see families as collaborators and equal participants in the recovery and renewal system, ensuing reports point out. This program holds profound implications for the family movement, Reiser and his committee believe.

Family Psychoeducation in PORT includes these features:

Research has shown that to be really effective these programs must run at least nine months and groups meet every other week. NAMI's Family-to-Family program is different in that generally consumers are not included, nor do professionals create the groups.

Note: Family-to-Family was not included in the PORT study since it was new and had not been researched.

The goal for these advocates is to make this "best practice" from the PORT study standard practice.

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