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PSYCHOEDUCATION:
APPLICATIONS FOR CROSSSYSTEMS PRACTICE IN
INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT
Mainstreaming Mental Health in Public Health Paradigms: Global Advances and Challenges
Global Foundation for Democracy and Development /Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo
UN Headquarters, New York
Ellen Lukens, PhD, LCSW
Columbia University School of Social Work
April 11, 2011
Psychoeducation
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Model that provides collaborative opportunity for
participants & facilitators to exchange knowledge
& learn together about an area of concern
Evidence-based/evidence-informed
Principle-based/curriculum-driven
Flexible model
 Clinical
& group practice
 Community practice & advocacy
 Training
PSYCHOEDUCATION
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educational & therapeutic interventions work together
therapeutic use of education
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education
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knowledge as power
psychiatry
Illness & wellness
other life challenges
practical strategies for coping in the face of stress, trauma, &
other challenges
community education & collaboration
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potential for building community awareness & advocacy skills
regarding health & mental health literacy
builds on resilience as well as challenge
Why Psychoeducation?
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Stress & Trauma Interfere with Processing & Using
Information & Knowledge
 Can
occur at individual, family, community, national
level
 Understood in different ways depending on culture,
history & resources
 Haiti
 Japan
 Kazakhstan
 United
States
Why Psychoeducation-continued?
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Stress & Trauma Interfere with Processing & Using
Information & Knowledge
 Daily
life is disrupted & no longer predictable
 Can occur at individual, family, community, national
level
 Can be acute or cumulative or both
Intervention or Training Goals
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enhance communication
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create a common language
foster knowledge exchange
allow participants to bear witness
build self-awareness/pattern recognition
build community & supports
models value of structure, sense of “normalcy”,
return to the ordinary
Knowledge is power…
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and information alone is not enough without…
 Insight
 Interpretation
 Understanding
 Context
Stages of Healing through
Psychoeducation
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Safety
Bearing witness
Managing feelings/self-care
Grief & loss
Personal power/self-efficacy
Meaning making
Transformative learning through
knowledge exchange
Building community awareness
Knowledge as Capital
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Integrate information with experience
Knowledge supports safety
Safety supports knowledge
Knowledge leads to self awareness
Self awareness creates opportunity for healing
Knowledge contributes to community advocacy &
healing
Collaborative Community of Care
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Share experience
Learning together
 the
learning community
 the learning collaborative
 the learning exchange
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Facilitators & members collaborate
Embrace multiple perspectives
Share responsibility & accountability
PSYCHOEDUCATION AS COLLABORATIVE MODEL:
shifting a paradigm
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Participants & facilitators ALL serve as:
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educators
students
translators
consultants
facilitators
advocates
monitors
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Planning a psychoeducational
intervention
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Assets & needs assessment
Draw on professional & local knowledge to
leverage assets & plan intervention
 Policy
makers
 Organizational members & leaders
 Community members & leaders
 Spiritual leaders
 Youth
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Curriculum development
Sources of Knowledge for Integrated & CrossSystems Practice in Health & Mental Health
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Policy & politics
Organizational knowledge
Research
Practitioner knowledge
User knowledge
Cultural context
Assets & Needs Assessment
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Professional knowledge (of the expert)
 the
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“experience far”
Local knowledge (of the crowd)
 the
“experience near”, the lived experience
 recognizing
 shared
history, perspective, world view
 Validating
both
 Privileging neither
Challenges to implementation..
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Need for commitment within & across systems
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among organizational, community, spiritual, political
leaders
 (i.e.
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buy-in from top-down & bottom-up)
Investment in health & mental health literacy among
general public
Sensitivity to linguistic & cultural interpretation of
stress, trauma, life challenge
Dissemination
Sustainability
Potential
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Ripple effects of accurate information & knowledge
Bridges formal (provider) & informal
(community/family/peer) supports
 Reduces
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power disparities
Can be used as group, community, organizational
and/or training model
Can lead to collective & community response &
action moving forward
 Builds
interdependent & mutual support
 Builds social capital, agency & community leadership
IN SUM...
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partnership among professionals & participants
shifting paradigm from challenges to strengths
present focused
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focus on critical time periods
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attention to timing
active use of group structure
emphasis on education & insight
community building/education
creates a learning collaborative or exchange
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parallels principles of community based participatory
research