Comparative review of family–professional communication: What mental health care can learn from oncology and nursing home care

Abstract

Because family members take on caring tasks and also suffer as a consequence of the illness of the patient, communication between health-care professionals and family members of the patient is important. This review compares communication practices between these two parties in three different parts of health care: oncology, nursing home care, and mental health care. It shows that there are important differences between sectors. Mental health stands out because contacts between family members and professionals are considered problematic due to the autonomy and confidentiality of the patient. The article explores several explanations for this, and, by comparing the three health sectors, distils lessons to improve the relationship between family members and health-care professionals.

Involving Patients and Families in the Analysis of Suicides, Suicide Attempts, and Other Sentinel Events in Mental Healthcare: A Qualitative Study in The Netherlands

“…In the family documents, attention is often paid to how to deal with privacy of the patient and how to deal with refusal by the patient to involve family. This is important because this is often perceived by professionals as a bottleneck for involving family [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…Involving patients and family during treatment of patients in mental healthcare is becoming more commonplace [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Research has been conducted on the involvement of patients and family during treatment.…”

“…Patients and families are thus increasingly playing an active role in treatment decisions. In addition they are increasingly involved at the level of organizational policy making in mental healthcare [ 7 , 8 , 15 ]. The idea is that this can improve the quality of care provided.…”

Palliative care delivery in residential aged care: Bereaved family member experiences of the Supportive Hospice Aged Residential Exchange (SHARE) intervention

“…Additionally, families have expressed dissatisfaction due to a general practitioner's inaccessibility and/or changes in the general practitioner responsible for the care (28). These di culties create barriers to the formation of a 'partnership' between staff and family which could enhance the quality of care (29), of particular importance at the end of life. The SHARE intervention was designed to improve palliative care delivery for residents and their families.…”

Caregiver, patient, and nurse visit communication patterns in cancer home hospice

“…Moreover, few studies have focused on the triadic communication processes of provider, patient, and caregiver in health care; those few studies have largely focused on a clinical consultation setting . Although caregiver input is often helpful and in some cases necessary, a caregiver can add complexity to interactions with health care providers, and may require management of the caregiver's expectations and needs, which may conflict with the expectation and needs of the patient . The decline of the patient in home hospice can add additional communication complexity.…”