Establishing family inclusive acute inpatient mental health services: a staff training programme in Somerset

Abstract

In spite of policies advocating the involvement of families in the care of mental health service users in the UK there are few examples of training initiatives to bring this about. This article describes the delivery of a whole‐team training initiative to promote family inclusive working in all acute inpatient units in Somerset. The three‐day staff‐training programme is described and training outcomes are reported. Staff reported a significant increase in confidence in their skills for working with families, and a pre‐ and post‐training case note audit showed an increased consideration of the needs of families. This was accompanied by a modest increase in the average number of family meetings. Obstacles to family inclusive ways of working on inpatient units are described, and strategies to overcome these are discussed.

“Service user involvement in practice”: The evaluation of an intervention program for service providers and inpatients in Norwegian Community Mental Health Centers

“…Involving family members in treatment and care is advocated as an important aspect of service user involvement. There are studies reporting that family members would like more information, more time and support from the mental health services, as well as greater involvement in the planning of their relatives' care and services (Goodwin & Happell, 2006;Stanbridge, Burbach, & Leftwich, 2009). Providers' reports of carer involvement increased in the intervention group and decreased in the comparison group.…”

Development and Implementation of Family Involvement Standards for Behavioral Health Provider Programs

“…Attendees at a 6-month follow-up session reported more contact with families. Stanbridge, Burbach, & Leftwich (2009) undertook team training on an acutecare inpatient unit and found that a record audit showed increased consideration of the needs of families posttraining and that staff reported increased confidence in working with families after the training.…”

Drawing forward family strengths in short therapeutic conversations from a psychiatric nursing perspective

“…Furthermore, results from multiprofessional efficacy studies on psychoeducational interventions and cognitive behavioral interventions for these distressed families, especially for families of schizophrenic, bipolar, and substance‐use disorder patients, have shown improvements in family functioning and better psychosocial outcomes for the patients when family interventions are being used . In spite of scientific evidence and clinical experience that family interventions have shown positive effects for the well‐being and functioning of patients and families, these programs, methods, and interventions have been a great challenge with systems barriers to implement into multidisciplinary everyday adult psychiatry …”