Navigating the Family Pathway through Mental Health Services is a project which aims to improve the way families supporting a family member, experience mental health services in New Zealand.
This research took place within Nelson Marlborough District Health Board (NMDHB), Mental Health Services. To maximise the participation of family members and mental health service staff members, the research used participatory action research methodology and mostly qualitative methods.
This document reports and compares the perspectives of family members and the staff members who work with them, and shows how these perspectives sit with policy documents that are focused on families.
We present the key components of a family pathway that is informed by the themes and knowledge derived from this research, other best practice research and policy direction.
Purpose
Supporting the families of people accessing mental health services is an important part of modern mental health care. The expectation that mental health services are available to family members is very real in the practice environment (Ministry of Health, 2008). Meeting this expectation, while also providing the best possible treatment to people experiencing mental illness, is one of many challenging and rewarding aspects of mental health service delivery.
This research, conducted in the Nelson Marlborough region, builds on the work of Suzanne Dimmendal, who interviewed families in the region in 2003. In her study participants were asked to describe “what they wanted from the mental health services for their family member” (Dimmendal & Watson, 2005). The study’s recommendations highlighted the needs that the family members felt were not met by mental health services.
The focus of this project is to learn more about what support and assistance these family members need. Learning more about what families need when supporting someone through mental health services can improve services in the future (Stanbridge & Burbach, 2007). Understanding the experience of mental health services staff and the context in which they practise is also important (Beecher, 2008; Kim & Salyers, 2008)
Key Results
Our research discovered learning opportunities and potential ways to improve the service, including:
- highlighting the importance of developing and maintaining respectful working relationships between mental health service staff members and family members
- emphasising the importance of respecting families’ experiences, and taking the concerns of families seriously
- emphasising mental health services providing accessible, good-quality information to families
- recognising that family members can provide information that is useful in formulating a consumer’s care plan
- recognising that for people experiencing a prolonged recovery from mental illness, family members may assume the main caregiver roleand require additional support and advice
- supporting mental health services staff to improve their skills in working with family members by providing good-quality information systems, group facilitation training, family-focused supervision, mentoring by other staff members and feedback from families and family representative organisations
- awareness that family members are more likely to experience mental health issues themselves, and that mental health services are ideally placed to refer family members early for treatment and may prevent, or catch early, any illness- or stress-related health effects.