What do the Carers of People with Schizophrenia Find Helpful and Unhelpful about Psycho-Education?

Abstract

Following a family intervention programme for schizophrenia sufferers 20 carers completed a semi-structured interview to identify which aspects of the educational component of the intervention they had found helpful and unhelpful. Their responses were then content analysed to identify the perceived therapeutic impacts of the education programme. Data are presented indicating a high level of inter-rater reliability for the content analysis. The frequency with which carers cited each therapeutic impact is reported and the significance of these findings for psycho-education programmes is discussed. # 1997

How was it for you? Families’ experiences of receiving Behavioural Family Therapy

“…Whilst it is not possible in this study to make a causal link between BFT and the reduction in stress, the families themselves connected this to their participation in BFT. This echoes the findings of other authors (McCreadie et al . 1991, Budd & Hughes 1997).…”

“…Budd & Hughes (1997) explored carers’ views of the impact of psycho‐educational interventions for schizophrenia and found that positive impacts included: increased understanding about schizophrenia, re‐attributing problem behaviour to the illness and helping to improve communication within the family. Negative impacts included wanting more information and information being provided too late.…”

“…Despite this cautious assessment, there is good reason to believe that families appreciate family interventions when they are received (Budd & Hughes 1997, Campbell 2000). Exploring the families’ perspectives would provide greater depth to the evidence of whether or not such interventions actually benefit families.…”

Helping Aging Parents of Adult Children with Serious Mental Illness

“…Biegel et al (2000), in their review of empirical studies of interventions for families of persons with mental disorders, found support for the efficacy of such programs, although they note a number of methodological difficulties with the existing literature. Budd and Hughes (1997) support the inclusion of psycho education in a multi-component intervention through their finding that family members most commonly cited increased knowledge of schizophrenia as the most helpful aspect of a family program.…”

“…Most family education programs attempt to help participants deal better with stress and crisis (Solomon, 2000). Outcome studies have found these interventions to be associated with reduced feelings of burden, distress, and anxiety for family members, along with improvements in their coping abilities, increased self-efficacy, and reductions in levels of family conflict (Biegel et al, 2000; Budd & Hughes, 1997; Goldberg-Arnold, Fristad, & Gavazzi, 1999; Hugen, 1993; Solomon, 1996). …”