Sixty years ago, the concept of custodial inpatient treatment began to gradually change into that of an activating outpatient concept. Through this process, the number of in-patient beds today in all psychiatric hospitals in the western part of the world has been reduced to 10-20% of those at the beginning of the 20th century. Though outpatient services had expanded to a high degree, the main burden of the psychosocial treatment still fell upon relatives. Most of these nursing families were poorly informed regarding their new duties. Thus many families were overstrained and not able to fulfill their function as "co-therapists". Because of the prevalence of overstrained families with dysfunctional behaviour, the EE-concept was developed in the sixties (Brown et al 1964). With the introduction of family therapy and the emergence of self help groups for relatives, families obtained substantial support. Through family therapeutic interventions, relatives were systematically integrated into long term rehabilitation concepts. In this way, the stigma of the "HEE"- relatives was changed (Bebbington et al 1994; Schulze-Mönking 1994; Möller-Leimkühler 2008). In the meantime, the engagement of family members can be viewed as an important resource and not merely as a stress factor which is to be reduced (Pitschel-Walz, Bäuml et al 2001). According to the therapeutic guidelines it is now part of standard therapy to integrate relatives already in the beginning of the treatment. In this context, psychoeducation is a very effective measure to inform family members of the background of the illness and the most important treatment elements. During the course of time, many concepts have been developed, particularly concerning schizophrenic psychosis, to train relatives and their patients to have better communication with less stress and more helpful interactions. Through the establishment of a worldwide network, relatives are encouraged to use their knowhow not only alone at home but also in their interaction with professionals and politicians to improve the living conditions of their patients. In this lecture, the historical background and actual findings concerning the empowerment of the relatives will be presented.