Team-Based Shared Formulation for Psychosis

Improving the recovery and quality of life for people with psychosis is nearly always a team-based responsibility: whether in early intervention, assertive outreach, rehabilitation or generic mental health teams. I have always been struck by the differences between teams with the same function in their capacity to absorb and manage risk safely without jeopardising their fundamental mission to care, empower and promote recovery and well-being. I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on why teams differ in this way; perhaps leadership, structure, model fidelity, expectations etc., let alone how to work with a whole team to hit the sweet spot. Alan Meaden, Andrew Fox and Henna Hussain have dedicated over two decades’ work to this task with spectacular results. In this book they demonstrate with clarity and accessible case material their approach built on a team-based shared formulation, and how it can provide a solid foundation for interventions delivered by the whole team, such as relapse prevention, easing distress from the troubled internal world, through to social recovery. This is the key to the successful translation of evidence-based interventions through a team platform and is essential reading for all psychosis teams. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Max Birchwood,Professor of Youth Mental Health at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick