When someone has a severe mental illness (SMI), what's it like for the rest of the family? How can professionals benefit by working with relatives of their SMI clients?

With insight and poignancy, Wasow explores experiences of the families of people with schizophrenia or a mood disorder. Her work includes the first information on how grandparents feel and react to the ripples. It is also among the first to talk about the rest of the extended family, as well as parents, siblings, children, and spouses.

Wasow's clinical recommendations and vignettes draw from in-depth interviews with 100 family members, with various professionals, and from available literature. This book creates more room for people of different convictions to work together with respect and compassion.