Brendan McNaughton

The population being studied are persons living with paranoid schizophrenia. 45 individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder and a control group of 46 individuals living without the disorder were included in the study. Multiple methodologies were used including a positive and negative syndrome scale, paranoid thoughts scale, and a psychosis symptom rating scale. The article was published recently in November 2022 and has some helpful information about schizophrenia at the very least for new BSW social workers. It introduces helpful terms like belief updating, to describe cognitive processes of persons with schizophrenia for practitioners who may have little to no reference point for person’s with schizophrenia and how they interact with various stimuli and the incorporation of said stimuli into an understanding of his/her/their reality. There were 55 references and 4 authors of the article who are all from psychiatry departments at various universities. What would be helpful beyond this article is the possibility of qualitative journal articles with interviews by persons experiencing paranoid delusions and then follow up interviews after medication.

The intended audience are people wanting to learn more about the experience of hearing voices or having other unexplained sensory experiences and visions. This could be just curious readers, family or friends of people with these experiences, or those in question themselves. The website offers free resources, articles, info, etc about hearing voices and can help facilitate forming support groups. It seems as though this website has been operating for a while and is still being updated (copyright 2024).

This is a wonderful website that aims to destigmatize the experience of hearing voices or having visions by raising awareness, being positive and strengths based, and promoting the support, empathy, and safety of individuals wanting to talk about hearing voices, and by honoring the diversity of these experiences in that they are negative for some and positive for others. This is an empowering resource for people who are maybe uncomfortable or frightened around this topic and normalizes hearing voices and acknowledges the differences in how we understand where voices come from (spirituality, trauma, biochemical, special gift or sensitivity). This perspective on hearing voices can reduce harm in mental health and recovery spaces. It’s a great resource that should be considered and shared when appropriate. They are a small national charity based in London.