Medication Management

Medication management with people who have mental health disorders is a partnership among the consumer, the doctor, the pharmacist and other mental health professionals that promotes the safe and effective use of medications and helps people achieve the best results from their medication. Medication management is often a key part of the recovery process for people who have mental health disorders when used in a systematic and effective way as part of the overall treatment. A healthy approach includes involving the consumer, families, friends and practitioners in a partnership to make sure the medications are prescribed in a way that supports the consumer’s personal recovery efforts. Guidelines and steps should be provided for decision-making that help those involved choose medications based on current evidence and outcomes. Results should be monitored so that future decisions about medications can take into account what has happened before. The consumer’s needs and concerns must be an integral part of the decision-making process.

The recovery movement and its effect of empowering consumers to take responsibility for their own lives has shifted focus away from issues of compliance with prescribed medications toward a focus on the consumer's recovery goals and how best to achieve those goals, including medication. Pat Deegan and Robert Drake discuss the outdated notion of compliance in contrast with person-centered shared decision making regarding medication management in the November 2006 issue of Psychiatric Services. Click here to read the full article.