Taking time to listen: meeting a schizophrenia carer
Taking time to listen: meeting a schizophrenia carer
With mental health a top priority at Teva, we recognize the immense impact that a severe and enduring condition like schizophrenia has on individuals, their families and their communities. Through initiatives like Life Effects and awareness-raising patient symposiums, we offer a platform where patients and carers can share their experiences, offering support and guidance to others.
At a recent patient symposium, we talked to Susan, a parent and carer for Matt who is living with schizophrenia – read Matt’s story here.
Susan’s son Matt was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his 20s. She says: “Nothing prepared me or our family for the experience of sending our perfect, well-adjusted, amazing son to college and then seeing him experience mental health challenges. At the time, they seemed sudden and unexpected. Now I understand they weren’t so sudden or unexpected, there were early signs, but we didn’t recognize them. We weren’t educated”.
How was Matt diagnosed?
The road to diagnosis is long and confusing. Statistics say it can take 4-10 years to get treatment after onset. In Matt’s case, we thought he’d just picked the wrong college, we sent a Florida kid to a gray Midwest campus. When that didn’t work, we brought him home and still didn’t know what was happening. Mental illness didn’t even cross our minds.
We explored everything - maybe he wasn’t college material. It never occurred to us it might be a serious illness. Even Matt’s community psychiatrist didn’t recognize the first break in 2009.
What was your initial reaction to the diagnosis?
Stigma played a big part. We thought, Matt can’t have schizophrenia. He’s articulate, he’s bright. But after his major episode in 2011 and a month-long hospitalization, we had no choice but to accept it. It took four years of not understanding, because we didn’t have the education or awareness. And we were beset by stigma.
What has been your experience of the healthcare system?
The mental health system is very difficult to navigate. One major issue is that people often don’t know what the warning signs are - changes in sleep, behavior, academic performance, etc - so they wait until there’s a crisis. And by then, it’s often too late for a soft entry into care.
In many communities, the response to crisis is police and involuntary commitment, which is traumatic. We were fortunate Matt entered the hospital in what I call a soft and loving way. But we didn’t know our options, we were lucky.
There’s been great progress with pharmaceutical solutions, but the psychosocial support is just as essential. These illnesses strike young people, often at critical points in their lives. Matt’s peers went on to college and graduate school while he was stuck, isolated.
There needs to be a continuum of care: inpatient, outpatient, supported housing, social services. We were able to piece together a recovery plan with the help of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). But people with mental illness are often deprived of even the basics - safe housing, community, purpose. Addressing that is crucial.
Have you encountered misconceptions about the condition?
Last year, I gave a talk while wearing a cast up to my shoulder after hand surgery. I wasn’t in pain, so I thought I could go ahead with the talk. I walked in and people opened doors for me, asked if I was okay, helped me sit down - because my need was obvious.
That’s the difference with mental illness. We don’t ask enough questions or notice what people might be struggling with. In a room of 10 or 20 people, five are likely struggling, and all 20 are touched - whether by a partner, child, or parent.
One misconception is that people going through this feel alone, that they’re the only ones. That’s not true. Another is that because you can’t see the illness, people assume help isn’t needed. If someone has a heart attack at work, we call for help. But if they’re talking about demons in their computer, we judge them.
And when we first heard Matt’s diagnosis, we couldn’t believe it. He looks normal, we thought. He can talk, he’s just different. That disbelief delays treatment.
The last misconception is that a mental health diagnosis is the end. It’s not. We show a film at NAMI Miami where people talk about their work - mothers, judges, programmers - and then turn around to reveal they live with bipolar disorder, an eating disorder, or depression. People can live well again with the help of companies like Teva.
We need to focus on recovery, helping people get back on their feet, not housing or jailing them.
How can healthcare providers help?
Mental illness affects the whole family. Often the person experiencing it can’t advocate for themselves. That’s why it’s essential to support caregivers. We connected with NAMI not just for Matt, but for ourselves. Their support groups and education made a big difference.
We need a holistic view: it’s not just the 20-minute doctor visit. It’s the social network that surrounds someone. That makes the biggest impact on recovery.
If I could dream big, I’d create a searchable tool that consolidates everything we know about these conditions, including best practices. Also, I believe every family sending a kid off to college should go through a mental health orientation - how to recognize warning signs, how to respond when something seems off. That’s when this often begins, and parents don’t always know what to look for.
What advice would you give to others?
It may sound paradoxical, but don’t lower expectations, just slow down the time horizon. Matt finished a graduate degree in social work while working full time and maintained a perfect academic record. It took a little longer, but there’s no race.
Also, early diagnosis is key. People need to be educated on what to look for and when to seek help. The more episodes someone has, the harder it gets. And finally, we spend only 2% of healthcare philanthropy on mental health. We must invest more in helping young people live full, productive lives.
Find out more about schizophrenia
Why we believe our work in this area is so important at Teva
“I know we talk a lot about the importance of the work we do, but there really is nothing more special and more important than patients and caregivers sharing their unique experiences and stories to provide us some true perspective on the value of this work”, says Kelly Dougherty, Head of Global Communications & Corporate Affairs at Teva.
NPS-ALL-NP-01628-September-2025
