Worker, workplace or families: What influences family focused practices in adult mental health?

Abstract

Accessible summaryWhat is known on the subject?• Family focused practice leads to positive outcomes for parents and children.• There are barriers and enablers for practitioners being family focused.What this paper adds to existing knowledge?• Worker skill, knowledge and confidence about family work are the most important factors associated with family focused practices.What are the implications for practice?• Mental health nurses require specific skill training in family focused practices, time to engage with clients on parenting issues and that there are adequate services to refer family members to. AbstractIntroduction: Family focused practice is thought to lead to positive outcomes for all family members. However, there are multiple barriers and enablers in adult mental health services to practitioners undertaking these actions. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the relative importance of worker, workforce and family factors to predict family focused practices (FFPs) in adult mental health services. Method: Three hundred and seven adult mental health workers completed a 45 items family focused practice measure of 16 family focused practices. Thesis: It was found that worker skill and knowledge about family work and an ability to assess the degree of parental insight into the child's connections to other family members and the community were important predictors of FFP, along with the closely related-worker confidence. While aspects of the worker, workplace and family each contribute to FFPs, this study highlighted the importance of worker skill, knowledge and confidence as central issues for adult mental health workers. Implications for practice: Study implications include the need for training in specific FFPs, the provision of time to engage with clients on parenting issues and the need 5 to ensure that there are adequate services for workers to refer family members to.

Predictors of family focused practice among health visitors: A mixed methods study

“…Most ( N = 200, 87%) of social workers in this study also had no training to support mothers, beyond those with perinatal mental illness. While others have also found that limited skill and knowledge and training hinder mental health professionals’ capacity to engage in FFP (Grant et al, ; Maybery, Goodyear, Reupert, & Grant, ; Tungpunkom et al, ), this study suggests that health visitors have different needs in relation to training than other professionals. For instance, while they may have knowledge and skills to support children, they have deficits in knowledge and skill in relation to supporting mothers with severe mental illness.…”

Predictors and enablers of mental health nurses’ family‐focused practice

“…Similarly, Maybery et al . () found that knowledge and skill was a key predictor of Australian mental health professionals’ FFP and recommended that they receive training in FFP to support parents, children, and adult family members. When nurses report adequate knowledge and skills, they perceive fewer barriers to FFP and are more likely to engage (Grant et al .…”

“…Maybery et al . () found that professionals’ knowledge and skill was the most important predictor of FFP. Goodyear et al .…”

How do Australian adult mental health clinicians manage the challenges of working with parental mental illness? A phenomenological study

“…However, empirical investigation of this model suggested that factors relating to clinicians, such as their attitude, confidence, and skill, were better predictors of family-focused practice than the other levels (Maybery, Goodyear, Reupert, & Grant, 2016). Although it is important to identify the barriers of family-focused practice, it is arguably more important to consider how these barriers might be addressed.…”