It’s Not a Race, It’s a Marathon! Families Living with a Young Adult Suffering from Mental Illness

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore families' perceptions of everyday life when living with a young adult suffering from mental illness. Findings include: 1) Families balance between letting go and enabling the young adult to become independent while remaining close to help him/her complete education, work and have a social life. 2) Young adults try to deal with symptoms of mental illness by themselves and not be a burden, although longing for family members to understand them and the situation. 3) Healthcare professionals still hold back information although young adults have consented to giving family members insight.

The Relationships between Health Professionals’ Perceived Quality of Care, Family Involvement and Sense of Coherence in Community Mental Health Services

“…Due to the transition from inpatient to outpatient care, treatment and care in community mental health services has developed and increased considerably (The Norwegian Directorate of Health, 2014;Sather et al, 2018). Consequently, more patients with mental health challenges live at home, where their families become more involved and have more responsibility in the patient's everyday life (Aass et al, 2020). This situation affects the health professionals' work situation and also requires family involvement in their clinical work (Ministry of Health and Care Services 2014).…”

“…Families themselves have also tended to support hospitalisation of their family members and have thereby contributed to institutionalisation (Jones, 2002). This is understandable, as family members experience a lot of responsibility when a person suffering from mental illness is living at home, and they often ask for cooperation with professionals in community mental health services (Aass et al, 2020).…”

Young Adults and Their Families Living With Mental Illness: Evaluation of the Usefulness of Family-Centered Support Conversations in Community Mental Health care Settings

“…Mental health care professionals were perceived to be continuously seeking approval from the patients regarding sharing information, despite the latter having given consent. This indicates that mental health care professionals are afraid of acting illegally (Weimand et al, 2013), or misunderstand the law of confidentiality, resulting in barriers for collaboration between families and professionals (Aass et al, 2020; Solomon et al, 2012). Notably, the FCSC were significant in the sense that mental health care professionals showed increased understanding of family everyday life after listening to the family’s narratives.…”

“…Young adults living with mental illness need support from their family as they strive to find healing and recovery; family members unquestionably play a key role in supporting the young adult’s pathway to recovery (Aass et al, 2020; Lindgren et al, 2015). Parents of young adults describe involvement in informal and professional mental health care as an isolated involvement with lack of being informed, seen, or acknowledged by health professionals (Andershed et al, 2017).…”

“…A number of them have supplementary education in mental illness so that they have a preventive role and can offer treatment and follow-up to young adults with mental illness. The importance of involving and acknowledging family as a resource in treatment and care is emphasized (Aass et al, 2020; Schröder et al, 2007; Weimand, 2012) as well as the implementation of strengths-based approaches (Gottlieb, 2013). Studies have found that approximately 18%–34% of young people with high levels of depression or anxiety symptoms seek professional help.…”