One-to-one relationships with the long-term mentally ill: issues in training professionals.

In training mental health professionals to work with long-term mentally ill persons, the importance of the one-to-one relationship needs to be emphasized. As advocated here, this should be a reality-based, problem solving approach. No part of this work is more important than giving these persons a sense of mastery over their internal drives, their symptoms, and the demands of their environment. Trainees need to be taught that it is important to be active in these one-to-one relationships; this includes giving advice. Insight, as defined in this article, is not to be neglected as a goal for the long-term mentally ill.