Therapists' Contacts With Family Members of Persons With Severe Mental Illness in a Community Treatment Program

Abstract

Thirty-six therapists at an urban community mental health center responded to a survey about contacts with family members of 214 clients with serious mental illness. For 61 percent of the clients, the therapists reported at least one past-year contact with a family member or someone acting as a family member. Contacts were typically by telephone and often took place during crises. The focus was on problem solving rather than on providing family therapy. Therapists perceived significant benefit from the contacts, which were achieved with little effort on their part. The results suggest that informal-and perhaps nonbillable-brief services to families are common. Such informal services fall short of recommended best-practice standards.

Attitudes and Perceived Barriers to Working with Families of Persons with Severe Mental Illness: Mental Health Professionals’ Perspectives

“…A self-administered staff survey was developed for this study based on previous research (e.g., Dixon et al 1999Dixon et al , 2000Greenberg et al 1995;Kaas et al 2003;Wright 1997). The first section included background information about the respondent such as gender, age, race, education, area of discipline, current staff position, and length of time in current position.…”

Outcomes of a Randomized Study of a Peer-Taught Family-to-Family Education Program for Mental Illness

“…While virtually all reviews recommend including families in the care of persons with mental illness (7), reported rates rarely exceed 50% (8)(9)(10). Families often report dissatisfaction regarding their interactions with the mental health system (4,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16).…”

The role of relatives in discharge planning from psychiatric hospitals: The perspective of patients and their relatives

“…Perreault et al (44) evaluated clients' point of view regarding the involvement of relatives in their treatment, and found that more than a third of participants did not want any communication between relatives and staff concerning either their treatment, medication, or preparation for discharge. Dixon et al (29) also found that roughly one-third of their sample did not want their families involved in treatment. Perreault et al's (44) study specified the dimensions related to clients' refusal to see their relatives involved in their treatment, and confirmed that the period of discharge planning is an important area of consideration.…”

“…The lack of availability, support, and willingness of clinicians to make a place for relatives in the planning of patient care has been noted in a number of studies (19,22,(29)(30)(31)(32). However, families can also show resistance to engaging in processes such as support groups, either because they don't anticipate a relapse in their family member, or because of the severity of their family member's psychiatric illness (33).…”