Social Skills Training for Schizophrenia: A Step-by-Step Guide
Alan S. Bellack, Kim T. Mueser, Susan Gingerich, Julie AgrestaBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Incorporating the most up-to-date concepts and clinical tools, the newly revised and expanded second edition of this popular manual is even more user-friendly than its predecessor. Presented are an empirically tested format and ready-made curricula for skills training groups in a range of settings. Part I takes therapists and counselors step by step through assessing clients' existing skills, teaching new skills, and managing common treatment challenges. Part II comprises over 60 ready-to-photocopy skill sheets (15 more than the previous edition), each one a complete lesson plan in itself. Other features of the second edition include an important new chapter on working with dually diagnosed clients; an overview of the empirical support for the approach; and additional assessment forms. Of special value for practitioners, the new 8 1/2" x 11" format makes it easier than ever to reproduce and use the practical materials in the book.Synopsis
This popular manual presents an empirically tested format and ready-made curricula for skills training groups in a range of settings. Part I takes therapists and counselors step by step through assessing clients' existing skills, teaching new skills, and managing common treatment challenges. Part II comprises over 60 ready-to-photocopy skill sheets. Each sheet--essentially a complete lesson plan--explains the rationale for the skill at hand, breaks it down into smaller steps, suggests role-play scenarios, and highlights special considerations. Of special value for practitioners, the 8 1/2" x 11" format makes it easy to reproduce and use the practical materials in the book.
Doody Review Services
Reviewer:Elaine M. Scorza, MS, APRN, BC(Rush University College of Nursing)
Description:This book thoroughly explores the multifaceted concepts and steps involved in social skills training for people with schizophrenia, in particular, and others who experience the same type of social skills deficits.
Purpose:The purpose is described as identifying the interpersonal behaviors we define as social skills, describe the basis for discomfort in interpersonal relationships that lack of these skills produces, and give practical ways to conduct a group experience to help those with lack of skills to gain skills in interpersonal relationships, thus potentially improving the quality of their life.
Audience:While mainly serving those clinicians who work with people with schizophrenia, this book could be useful for a wide variety of disciplines, including those who work with addictions, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and counselors.
Features:This second edition incorporates the most recent clinical tools available and includes available research to support evidence-based practice as much as possible. It begins with an understanding of the concepts and assessment of client needs, then, in part II, offers user friendly worksheets for both the client and the therapist in bolstering old and gaining new skills. The new chapter on dual diagnosis and training enhances the usefulness of this edition. The book also spans age groups, being appropriate for selected adolescents as well as older adults in need of these skills. According to the author, this book is intended as a hands-on manual for new and experienced clinicians who wish to conduct effective social skills training groups. The author, a past president of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, is a first recipient of an award for lifetime research on psychosocial aspects of schizophrenia, and is well qualified to author this work. His knowledge and experience in this area is clear throughout the book.
Assessment:This is an excellent book with a strong practical component that supports the particular National Institute of Health Guideline for schizophrenia, that persons with schizophrenia should be offered social skills training, along with the key elements well represented in the book.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"This book is an essential tool for psychiatric rehabilitation. As with the previous edition, these eminent and highly regarded authors present a step-by-step guide to developing extremely successful social skills training programs. The second edition addresses the significant problem of substance abuse by providing carefully planned, customized group procedures and clever handouts specifically designed to address social skills deficits in the dual diagnosis population. Another highlight of this edition is its comprehensive review of the many clinical trials that have established social skills training as a decidedly effective, evidence-based practice for improving a wide range of community outcomes for those with schizophrenia."--Dawn I. Velligan, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio"The second edition of this highly successful book is a very useful guide for all mental health professionals who work with persons with chronic schizophrenia. After stabilizing the acute episode with antipsychotic medications, the rehabilitation begins, and this book enables practitioners to optimize clients' functional outcomes. The new chapters about social skills training as an evidence-based practice and about working with clients who abuse drugs and alcohol are particularly relevant and useful. As a clinical supervisor of psychiatric trainees, I will strongly urge my supervisees and other members of the mental health treatment team to use this practical, step-by-step guide to facilitate the integration of biological and psychosocial management approaches."--Henry A. Nasrallah, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati Medical Center
"The definitive text on the topic. This second edition will be extraordinarily valuable both for experienced clinicians with a background in social skills training and for those who are interested in expanding their skills by adapting this evidence-based practice. The strength of this volume is that it provides a scholarly discussion of social deficits in schizophrenia together with a highly practical, step-by-step approach for conducting social skills training."--Stephen R. Marder, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
"This book should be required reading for all those involved in the comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with schizophrenia. We recommend it highly."--Journal of Clinical PsychiatryCommunity Mental Health Journal
"The major strength of the book is that the authors provide all the necessary ingredients for implementing state-of-the-art social skills training as they focus on assessment, group leadership skills, and carrying out the group tasks with specific and well-designed curricula....This guide lives up to its step-by-step" promise. It reflects the many years that the authors have spent in their collective careers translating a behavioral model of social skills with intended functional outcomes into clinical practice for a specific population....This guide also serves as a textbook for students, enabling them to make giant leaps in their understanding of the nature and execution of evidence-based practices for individuals with persistent mental illness, making clinical experiences more rewarding for trainees and more precise for their supervisors. This instruction manual has the makings to become a classic reference book on the topic of social skills training."--Community Mental Health JournalBulletin of the Menninger Clinic
"This volume provides clinicians with a hands-on volume that will teach them to conduct clinically sophisticated and effective social skills training groups....Any clinician, regardless of experience level, who is interested in providing social skills training to individuals with schizophrenia--or to their families--will find a wealth of practical, clinically and empirically sound information."--Bulletin of the Menninger ClinicFrom The Critics
Reviewer: Elaine M. Scorza, MS, APRN, BC(Rush University College of Nursing)Description: This book thoroughly explores the multifaceted concepts and steps involved in social skills training for people with schizophrenia, in particular, and others who experience the same type of social skills deficits.
Purpose: The purpose is described as identifying the interpersonal behaviors we define as social skills, describe the basis for discomfort in interpersonal relationships that lack of these skills produces, and give practical ways to conduct a group experience to help those with lack of skills to gain skills in interpersonal relationships, thus potentially improving the quality of their life.
Audience: While mainly serving those clinicians who work with people with schizophrenia, this book could be useful for a wide variety of disciplines, including those who work with addictions, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and counselors.
Features: "This second edition incorporates the most recent clinical tools available and includes available research to support evidence-based practice as much as possible. It begins with an understanding of the concepts and assessment of client needs, then, in part II, offers user friendly worksheets for both the client and the therapist in bolstering old and gaining new skills. The new chapter on dual diagnosis and training enhances the usefulness of this edition. The book also spans age groups, being appropriate for selected adolescents as well as older adults in need of these skills. According to the author, this book is intended as a hands-on manual for new and experienced clinicians who wish to conduct effective social skills training groups. The author, a past president of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, is a first recipient of an award for lifetime research on psychosocial aspects of schizophrenia, and is well qualified to author this work. His knowledge and experience in this area is clear throughout the book. "
Assessment: "This is an excellent book with a strong practical component that supports the particular National Institute of Health Guideline for schizophrenia, that persons with schizophrenia should be offered social skills training, along with the key elements well represented in the book. "
4 Stars! from Doody