This agency-based multifamily group workshop,conducted without patients present, attempts to re-duce family members’ vulnerability to stress, anxi-ety, and instability by providing information aboutthe nature of schizophrenia and about effectiveways of managing the illness.Application of Anderson et al.’s(1986)day-long psychoeducational workshop does not appearto require any modification for this stageinthepresent model. If the engagement phase has beensuccessful in dealing with families’ needs and anx-iety, and if trustinthe clinician and the agency hasbeen established, families will feel comfortable at-tending a multifamily survivors’ skills workshopat the agency. However,theworkshop should notbe a one-shot. Based on earlier reports(Berkowitz,Eberlein-Fries. Kuipers,C?Lefl1984),family mem-bers may recall only a fraction of what they havebeen told and retain their own versions of thecauses of illness. This may be even more likelyamong Asian-American families duetotheir lackof familiarity with Western medical terminologyand their strong sense of responsibility, which maylead them to blame themselves for their children’sillness. Therefore, it is recommended that the edu-cational workshop be provided on a regular basis,perhaps as frequently as once every three months,to refresh family members’ memories and rein-force the knowledge acquired.Stage4:Therapeutic StagePsychoeducational workshops, while importantin helping families learn to cope, cannot adequate-ly address the therapeutic needs of individual fam-ilies. This is due partly to the didactic natureoftheworkshops and partly to the absenceofpatients.Although one recent study(Schooleretal..1997)indicated that simply providing education, withoutfurther clinical intervention, can be as effective asmore intensive treatment, the treatment recom-mendations developed by the schizophrenia Pa-tient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) endorsedthe provision of additional clinical services(Leh-man et al.,1998).Inour experience, individual-ized services involving both patients and theirfamily members are an essential follow-up to thesurvivors’ skills workshop. These interventionsshould be accomplished by two means-single-family sessions and family support groups.Single-family sessions.Since the major goal atthis stage is provision of highly individualizedclinical treatmenttomeet the specific needs ofeach family, a single-family formatissuggested.Although McFarlane et al.(1995)reported somegainsinclient outcome, as wellascost savings, formultifamily groups, compared to single-familytreatment, these findings held true for high-EECaucasian families and patients, but not for Afri-can-American families with low EE. The existingliterature does not provide clear indication ofwhether a single-family or multifamily group ismore effective for Asian Americans. Our recom-mendation of single-family as the treatment ofchoice is basedonreports suggesting that AsianAmericans are reluctant to admit emotional or psy-
