Ellen Bassuk
Ellen L. Bassuk and Daniel M. Schoonover are the authors of the new book Between Two Worlds: A Psychiatrist and Her Son's Quest for Compassionate Mental Health Care. Bassuk is a psychiatrist who was associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School for almost 40 years. Schoonover, her son, has worked to care for animals.
Q: Why did the two of you decide to write this book together?
A: The decision to write Between Two Worlds slowly evolved and paralleled changes in our lives.
Ellen had just finished a project on Homeless Mothers and Children, was semiretired from C4Innovations, and with Covid was working at home. Always focused on her children, she was struck by Daniel’s growth and his increasing willingness to share his internal experiences with her and others.
This was new. Since Dan was a baby, she had saved all his medical and school reports, and consultations, and had a large tub of unsorted materials about his life. As he became more open, she was inspired to begin to sort this large collection of reports with Daniel’s help.
This process spawned the idea for the book. There were few reports in the literature that included the lifelong internal experiences of someone with a major mental illness.
Also, as a psychiatrist and one with personal involvement, she wanted to discuss the need to redesign the mental health system and how its brokenness was impacting patients and their families.
Daniel Schoonover
On the other hand, Dan was initially ambivalent about the book because he tends to be very private and was concerned about the “transparency” that might allow people to judge him.
But after much self-reflection and encouragement, Dan thought the book would help him sort out some of what happened to him and help him understand his life better.
Q: What was it like to collaborate on this project?
A: Overall, our collaboration went smoothly aside from occasional minor disagreements and delays. Daniel worked on the section on voices independently—with the occasional help of an editor. Ellen would tell him what chapter she was working on and ask him for input. We discussed most of the sections together.
Q: How would you define compassionate mental health care?
A: Compassionate mental health care is person centered (not deficit oriented) in which the illness/diagnosis is viewed as only one part of the person’s experience.
Instead, the person’s hopes, wishes, and dreams—and hope for the future—drive the treatment experience. The treatment is self-directed with the consistent support of a trustworthy empathic caretaker who sees the whole person, not just the illness.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write this book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: The book highlighted the pressing need to redesign the broken mental health system and to mitigate the stigma and implicit biases attached to many mental health disorders.
Our neglect of the most severely ill patients also highlighted the need to address other vulnerable groups and related issues such as homelessness, poverty, and racism.
The introduction of “recovery oriented” approaches instilled more hope and a route to a future filled with purpose and meaning. Many of the systems problems we focused on are also present in the larger health care system and need attention.
We hope that readers are instilled with hope about the course of serious mental illness and especially parents who must face it with conviction, understanding, patience, and acceptance of differences. We hoped that our story would inspire people facing a similar journey.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Dan is focused on figuring out the next steps in his life. He is currently working at a community food bank, caring for his animals (fish, tarantula, cat), playing music, exercising, and attending wellness courses at BU’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation.
Ellen is continuing her advocacy for vulnerable populations and is working on various op-eds focused on the patient caregiver relationship.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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