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Courses on Improving the Quality of Your Life
Contact Information:
Mr. Gosta Granqvist
Sofielundsvagen 36 C
214 34 Malmo, Sweden
Telephone/Fax: +46 40 923420
In 1992, Mr. Gosta Granqvist, a marketing manager for a large Swedish Corporation, developed a fear of airline travel, a job requirement. He referred to the terror as an “overwhelming paranoia,” and over the next few years Granqvist was admitted twice to a psychiatric hospital. Following each hospitalization, he attempted unsuccessfully to access useful community mental health services. Although he hoped that someone in the system would talk with him about such practical problems as caring for his apartment, communicating with his wife and children, or transitioning from hospital to community, such services were apparently not available in Sweden.
Granqvist also found little help while in the hospital. On one particular occasion, when he was depressed and lying in a psychiatric hospital bed, he remembered what his life had been like years ago when he had been a positive thinker. He realized that his feelings of hopelessness left him with only two options: one option was to commit suicide, and the other option was to give life one more chance. Realizing he wished to pursue the second option, he jumped from his bed, walked to the day room, and began asking his fellow patients how they dealt with their own psychiatric challenges. But rather than providing him with any inspirational insights, the patients simply explained that the only strategy they had developed was to return frequently to the hospital. Indeed, many patients had been returning regularly to the hospital for 20 to 30 years.
Granqvist became frightened, believing he too would develop such a dependency on the hospital. Terrified, he ran to the nurses’ station and desperately asked the professionals what he needed to do in order to be discharged.
They had no answers for him.
Months later, after regaining some of his strength, Granqvist was, indeed, discharged and began looking for a job. However, when it became apparent that no one wished to employ him because of his psychiatric disability, he went to work as a volunteer for Intresseforeningen For Schizophrenia (IFS), a family advocacy agency similar to The National Alliance on Mental Illness. Despite his disability, Granqvist worked successfully at IFS for several years and eventually reached the position of Executive Director. During his time at IFS, Granqvist also conducted consumer-oriented group meetings called “experience groups,” aimed to provide support, insight, and hands-on assistance to his consumer peers. Because of the demand for these experience groups, he eventually left IFS in order to develop a program that could be delivered to more people.
The new program became today’s “Courses on Improving the Quality of Your Life,” a curriculum divided into four independent segments. Each course takes place over a four-month semester, meeting approximately 20 times per semester, once a week, for two hours. The courses are made available to persons in psychiatric hospitals as well as to persons living in the community. No psychiatric professionals are involved. In addition to the formal courses, Granqvist also offers individualized development sessions, and his telephone is open daily if a course participant wants to talk with him or to provide him with feedback about a particular course.
In the first course, titled “Our Personal World and Us,” participants are asked to make informal presentations followed by informal discussion groups. As the semester proceeds, participants are encouraged to plan and to give more formal talks on issues and experiences important to them. These more formal presentations teach participants to express themselves and allow them to receive feedback. Since many of the participants have either never been asked what is important to them or have never been afforded longer than a few minutes to answer this question, the course serves as a catalyst for becoming aware of their past experiences, their interests and concerns, and their hopes and desires for their future.
The second course is entitled “Towards a Better Life,” and it focuses on defining what a better life means to each participant. Throughout the semester, inspirational lectures are offered that assist participants to define what a better life means to them. Granqvist compares this process of defining a better life to writing a book, and the aim is to awaken creative and social skills. For example, some of the classes focus on the basics of interacting with people and of showing respect in social environments. Towards the end of the semester, participants consider the concept of recovery and the issue of taking responsibility for one’s own recovery.
The third course, “To Create a Better Life,” includes various lectures as well as in-class and out-of-class exercises. Participants reflect on their own level of recovery and are encouraged to take more responsibility in various aspects of their lives. They begin to move away from group-oriented life planning and toward the development of a personal life agenda. While considering this personal agenda, they also begin to consider their economic situation and constraints, and then to develop a plan that guides them toward greater independence.
The fourth course, “To Keep a Good Life,” is aimed at helping participants to become more comfortable with themselves while utilizing their own insights and skills. Throughout the semester, the participants learn how to set limits that support their desired lifestyles. They learn how to resolve conflicts and how to trust their perceptions and intuition. Furthermore, the participants study the psychiatric system in great detail and begin to identify both what they desire from the service system and what they can expect from the system.
Together, “Courses on Improving the Quality of Your Life” have proven a remarkable success. The demand for Granqvist’s curriculum is increasing dramatically across Sweden - so much so that he must now consider training others in how to lead the courses. Moreover, the Swedish national insurance company, similar to our Medicaid program, has recently agreed to pay for these successful courses.
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