Editorial Policy
Mission
Our mission is to provide hope of a better life to people living with schizophrenia: Sufferers, carers, relatives and friends.
Audience
Our audience includes (but we hope is not limited to):
• People suffering with schizophrenia
• Carers, relatives and friends of people with schizophrenia
• Medical professionals
• Students of health and social care subjects
• News media professionals
Funding
Start up funding for the website was provided from the personal funds of people who have had direct personal experience of schizophrenia and have gone on to recover well and to lead a better life. Whilst donations towards our funds are most welcome we neither solicit nor accept contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, nor any organisations associated with the promotion of alcohol, drugs or gambling.
Relevance
Living with Schizophrenia will work exclusively with schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder. We believe that this condition, with its unique features and challenges, requires a deeper understanding that cannot be achieved in the environment of a mainstream mental health website covering a broad spectrum of conditions.
Impartiality
We seek to provide accurate information including scientific evidence and, where appropriate, relevant anecdotal experiences and opinions provided by people with personal experience of living with schizophrenia: sufferers, carers, relatives and friends.
Although we will always seek to provide balance when reporting opinions or anecdote we will promote only those views that encourage lifestyle choices and treatment options that will ultimately lead to better lives for people with schizophrenia. We will not report opinions that do not either promote recovery or help people with schizophrenia to aspire to a better life.
We do not support any particular form of treatment or therapy but recognise that different people respond to different approaches. We believe in a holistic approach to recovery: that recovery is not promoted by drugs or psychotherapy alone but by the treatment of the whole person.
We include links to other internet sources that we feel may be of help to users of this site but we can take no responsibility for the accuracy of the content of external sites.
Topicality
Descriptions of procedures and facilities in the NHS or other bodies are correct at the date of publication but may change over time. Readers are urged to use a full range of sources when searching for help and support for their condition.
Accountability
Living with Schizophrenia is published by LWS (UK) CIC: a registered community interest company based in the UK. We will communicate openly with any enquiries concerning the content of the website through our email and postal addresses. For good reasons of confidentiality when reporting personal experiences of schizophrenia some names have been changed.
Terminology
We believe that schizophrenia is a complex illness of the brain. It is in many cases a life threatening illness which is currently poorly understood by the wider society and poorly resourced by government. The scale of the issue for society is very great: more people die as a result of experiencing an episode of schizophrenia than die on the roads in traffic accidents.
Whilst we are aware that in recent years there has been some debate around the correct terminology to use to describe the experience of schizophrenia, we genuinely feel that terms such as “mental health problems” or “mental distress” currently favoured by some practitioners do not adequately convey the enormous and disastrous impact that schizophrenia has on people’s lives and we will therefore continue to use more conventional terms.
Referencing
The Harvard System of referencing is used throughout. This is straightforward and relatively simple to use and provides the maximum amount of information conducive to further research should the reader wish to do so.
Copyright
Every effort has been made to contact relevant copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. Copyright holders should contact Living with Schizophrenia via the website contact page in the first instance.
Citation
You are welcome to use the material on this website for purposes of personal research but we would ask that you credit Living with Schizophrenia as authors of the work using the following suggested style:
Web content: (Author’s name where stated), Living with Schizophrenia website, (full URL of page), Accessed (month) (year).
In the main, as most of our authors are people living with schizophrenia, for the sake of confidentiality we do not state the individual author’s name on each page except where they have requested it.
Authors and Individuals
Mention of any individual by name in this website must not be construed as an indication of their mental wellbeing or other health status. The content of individual pages does not necessarily represent the views of the Living with Schizophrenia website nor of LWS (UK) CIC. We cannot take any responsibility for the content of any comment left by third parties in the comments sections. Images are used throughout the website to illustrate, inform or add impact to the text. Representation of any individual or organisation in an image contained in the website should not be taken as an indication of their health status nor does it indicate that they are in any way affiliated with this website or with LWS (UK) CIC nor connected in any way with the issue of schizophrenia.
Copyright © April 2023 LWS (UK) CIC.
