“Left Alone with Straining but Inescapable Responsibilities:” Relatives’ Experiences with Mental Health Services

Abstract

Relatives of persons with severe mental illness experience burden and straining changes in their lives that put their health at risk. Consequently, they need support from health professionals. The aim of this study was to describe experiences from encounters with mental health services as seen from the point of view of relatives of persons with severe mental illness. A qualitative, explorative study was performed, based on two open-ended questions in a cross-sectional study of relatives' health, burden, and sense of coherence (n = 216). A manifest qualitative content analysis was used to describe the relatives' experiences. The findings show that some relatives had experienced positive encounters with health personnel, but the majority of experiences reported were negative. The encounters can be summarized into one main category: "Left Alone with Straining but Inescapable Responsibilities." Two categories emerged: "Striving for Involvement for the Sake of the Mentally Ill Person," and "Wanting Inclusion for the Sake of Oneself." There is a gap between relatives' needs for support in order to handle their own situation in relation to their mentally ill next of kin, and what they actually receive from the mental health services. The findings suggest that health professionals should collaborate with and support these relatives.

Life‐sharing experiences of relatives of persons with severe mental illness – a phenomenographic study

“…Although searching for hope, our findings show that relatives’ hope could diminish as they experienced a lack of recovery or of follow‐up from mental health care services, further complicated by having to balance the personnel’s boundaries for acceptable ‘interfering’ from relatives (40). To experience relief from one’s own burden may build hope in relatives (38), and carer burden can be reduced if the patient’s needs are met by the health services (41).…”

‘Responsible, but Still not a Real Treatment Partner’: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Relatives of Patients on Outpatient Commitment Orders

“…If relatives are to be a treatment resource, clinicians must provide for a strengthening of their role (Kaplan, Turner, Norman, & Stillson, 1996). As Weimand, Hedelin, Hall-Lord, and Sällström (2011) showed, relatives of people with severe mental disorders need support to master their role as relatives. They need to feel that their experience is acknowledged and worked on.…”

Experiences of the psychiatric specialist health services – The perspective of relatives of inpatients with severe depression

“…A closer and more inclusive collaboration with health professionals was found to be important, which corresponds with Perreault et al [5] and Schröder et al, [28] who found collaboration to be a key element and predictor of relatives' satisfaction with the mental health services. According to Rowe [36] and Weimand et al, [37] collaboration should be characterized by a more empathic communication in which mental health-care personnel encounter relatives with openness and interest. In Kim's [38] typology of theoretical domains for nursing, the three phenomena of contact, communication and interaction are highlighted in the Client-Nurse domain.…”