Resistance to treatment in psychiatry can arise from a variety of causes, and here we look at two strategies that can improve this problem. First, we discuss the role of patients' relatives; in addition to family therapy interventions, setting up groups of relatives makes it possible to increase their skills in helping their sick relative and to help each other in this process. And finally, we look at the option of interventional psychiatry. These methods, which have been greatly enriched in recent years, are now available in the interventional psychiatry unit recently opened in the new Cery psychiatric hospital in Lausanne.