Unheard Voices: Mothers of Adult Children With Schizophrenia Speak Up

White, Cathy; UnruhAnita,

doi:10.7870/cjcmh-2013-025

Cited by 5 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Research published by Johansson et al (2015) revealed that the health of mothers was affected to a greater extent than fathers. Mothers expressed more concerns about the impact of their child's illness on the family (Landon et al, 2016;White & Unruh, 2013) and experienced a sense of bereavement (Wiens & Daniluk, 2017) upon hearing their child's diagnoses. Their grief can be described as nonfinite because it was never ending, denying them of the hopes, dreams, and aspirations they once held for their child (Schultz & Harris, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Professionals as Mothers of Adult Children With Schizophrenia

et al. 2020

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In this qualitative narrative study, we critically reflected upon mothering experiences of health professionals with adult children with schizophrenia. Thirteen participants from Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the United States were interviewed. The thematic analysis of the interviews resulted in one overarching theme—mothering in the context of uncertainty: unbalancing and rebalancing as mothers, and three major themes: disrupted mothering, reconfigured mothering, and resolute mothering. The findings suggested participants experienced difficulties in separating their professional role from their maternal responsibilities. The mothers gained expertise by using their dual knowledge to advocate for and support their children’s mental health. The mothers’ dual roles had a positive impact on their relatedness to others within their professional practice. Health care organizations might benefit from the expertise of health professionals with dual roles in the development of support, care, treatment, and delivery of services for people and their family members who live with schizophrenia.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Professionals as Mothers of Adult Children With Schizophrenia

et al. 2020

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“…Parents had an emotional investment in their child which is typically infused with hopes and dreams for their children's future. Though the degree of specificity varied, parents typically wanted their children to live happy, healthy, and fulfilled adult lives (Johansson et al, 2012;White & Unruh, 2013;Wiens & Daniluk, 2009). When their adult child was diagnosed with SMI, parents in these studies realized that those hopes and dreams might not be possible.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parents also needed to adjust their own relationship with their adult child. At a time when parents were looking forward to launching their young adult child, they now needed to rethink how they would continue in some sort of caregiving role for the foreseeable future (Darmi et al, 2017;Johansson et al, 2010;Landon et al, 2016;White & Unruh, 2013). Parents had to thereby adjust the hopes and dreams they had for themselves at this stage of life.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They were all remarkably similar in their goals of exploring the lived experiences of parents of an adult child with SMI, posing research questions with minimal variation and slight differences in their sampling. White and Unruh (2013) and Wiens and Daniluk (2017) investigated how a mother is affected when their child is diagnosed with schizophrenia; Nyström and Svensson (2004) and Wiens and Daniluk (2009) examined the impact of that same diagnosis on fathers' experiences. The remaining six papers explored parents' experiences of living with or caregiving for a child with SMI (Darmi et al, 2017;Johansson et al, 2010;Johansson et al, 2012;Kılıç & Saruc, 2015;Landon et al, 2016;McAuliffe et al, 2014).…”

Section: Theoretical Conceptualization Of Griefmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parents' grief is imbued with uncertainty Many parents struggled with the tremendous amount of uncertainty involved in the experience of SMI in their adult child, and this uncertainty pervaded their grief experiences (Johansson et al, 2010;Johansson et al, 2012;Landon et al, 2016;McAuliffe et al, 2014;White & Unruh, 2013;Wiens & Daniluk, 2017). The uncertainty of SMI involves several domains including uncertainty regarding diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment recommendations (Landon et al, 2016;Wiens & Daniluk, 2017).…”

Section: Parents' Grief Is Complicated By Guiltmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Grief experiences in parents of adult children with serious mental illness

Williams-Wengerd

Solheim

2021

J of Family Theo & Revie

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Because of systemic changes in mental health treatment since deinstitutionalization, parents have taken on more involved roles for their children with serious mental illness (SMI), even when their children have reached young adulthood. However, the changes in parental roles and relationships with their adult children with SMI, and the grief that stems from those changes, have not been adequately reflected in research or treatment interventions. Studies primarily focus on individual perspectives and neglect the relational nature of grief within a family. The absence of a family perspective in treatment systems leave parents to navigate grief and loss on their own. In this article, we systematically review 12 papers on the grief experiences of parents of an adult child with SMI. Through a thematic analysis of the findings it becomes clear that there is a need for employing a family theoretical perspective to address the inherent relational nature of grief. Ambiguous loss theory provides a relationally grounded model which expands our understanding of parents' grief and gives direction for more effective interventions for families. K E Y W O R D S adult children, grief, parents, serious mental illnessAccording to the National Institutes of Mental Health (n.d.), serious mental illness (SMI) 1 impacts approximately 4.5% of the US population. Research on SMI has largely been studied from a biomedical perspective, with a primary treatment focus on the reduction of an individual's symptoms. Systemic shifts in the treatment of SMI from institutionalization to 1 The National Institutes of Mental Health (n.d.) define SMI as "a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities." The American Psychological Association (n.d.) also provides guidance on specific diagnoses which could be included in SMI (e.g., schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder). For this systematic review, the definition used for SMI is a mental health impairment that lasts for 2 years or longer, and/or a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder.

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