Development of family interventions: a 9-month pilot study

Abstract

This article outlines the introduction and development of a team of like-minded people utilizing family interventions (FIs) in a NHS Trust. FIs can be described as therapy sessions for families of people experiencing psychosis, which involve the family, client and therapist. The sessions focus on key elements, such as engagement and assessment, psycho-education, communication skills, problem-solving and relapse prevention. Through this focus, problems are analysed and ultimately the interventions are decided and agreed upon. The analysis of the team utilizing FIs in a NHS Trust raises many questions, identifies problems encountered in its conception and highlights managerial difficulties that occurred when trying to balance caseload demands and something envisaged as resource- and time-hungry. The Trust, however, views FIs as one of the ways of addressing part of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2002) guidelines, Schizophrenia: Core Interventions in the Treatment of Schizophrenia in Primary and Secondary Care, and lately, Organising and Delivering Psychological Therapies (Department of Health, 2004), and are keen to improve the quality of the service user and carer experience.