Christy has a diagnosis of schizophrenia. She believes, when she is ill, that she is related to the president of the United States and she has made her way to Washington on several occasions. Both times Capitol police have arrested her and then had her hospitalized in Washington. Christy has returned home now and is talking to her case manager. She realizes when she is on her medication consistently that she is not related to the president, but she tells her case manager that she gets an overwhelming desire to see the president to warn him about “all the bad people out there.” She goes on to give an elaborate description of how she is related to the president through her “earth mother.” 

(a) Should the case manager explain to Christy how she is not related to the president? 

(b) Are there other interviewing techniques that the case manager could use? 

(c) Is the case manager responsible for making sure that Christy does not return to Washington? If yes, to what extent?

Looking at the techniques you learned in this chapter, decide what techniques and skills would be best to use in each of these situations.