(This article originally appeared in NAMI Long Beach Newsletter in May, 1994 and has helped many families and individuals)

Keep an Up-to-date History Summary
Keep a summary of up-to-date information on your mentally ill loved one. This summary can be given to treatment facilities to speed treatment and avoid confusion and mistakes. The summary should be only one or two pages long. List items of significance pertaining to your love one’s illness:

• Past treatments: types of things that have worked well and things that have led to complications.
• Diagnosis—just the most recent. Include a brief statement about when the person became ill and what the person was like before the illness.
• List hospitalizations and reasons.
• Suicide attempts, when and how.
• Acts of violence, when, how and against whom or what.
• Currently under treatment for (diagnosis).
• Current treating psychiatrist (if any) and current medication(s) and dosages and any side effects.
• If not taking any medication, say so
• History of drug and/or alcohol use.
• Physical ailments