It's possible to live a healthy, rewarding life despite having a severe mental illness.
The Center needs your help to share this message with others. To make your job a little easier, we've provided links to helpful information about mental illness. If you need additional information or have a question, please contact us at 919.966.8990.
For some people, their experience of mental illness is a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal. For others, it is a life-long process of coping and recovery.
Although getting ill can be a costly complication in a person's life, many of the treatments that can help are affordable and available in most locales.
For about half the people diagnosed with schizophrenia, their symptoms develop gradually, over the course of months or years. For the other half, it occurs more quickly, over the course of days or weeks. (Source: Textbook of Schizophrenia, p. 354)
The prodrome is a period of time during which the person's behaviors are markedly different from before and their ability to function overall declines, but they have not yet developed full psychosis. The prodrome period lasts on average from 2 to 5 years. (Source: Textbook of Schizophrenia, pp. 341-342)
Clinically, we have observed psychosis to be a stress-sensitive illness, as are many illnesses. Although sometimes it seems like symptoms just appear, we believe they are usually triggered by some perceived stress or stimulus (job loss, change in a relationship, etc.). Additionally, stressful events can trigger a relapse. As one of our doctors aptly puts it, "Anything that wigs you out can cause a relapse." Relapse planning or crisis planning is a process used by individuals and clinicians to identify triggers and to reduce their impact.
Founded in January 2009, the Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health is part of the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Addressing quality of care and workforce development issues in North Carolina's mental health system, the Center and its clinical programs are supported by a three-year grant from The Duke Endowment, as well as Cross Area Services Program (CASP)
funds. The program operates in conjunction with multiple university, state, and community-based partners.
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