Abstract
BackgroundSubstantial and important benefits flow to all stakeholders, including the service user, when mental health services meaningfully engage with carers and family members. Government policies around the world clearly supports inclusiveness however health service engagement with family and carers remains sporadic, possibly because how best to engage is unclear. A synthesis of currently used surveys, relevant research and audit tools indicates seven core ways that families and carers might be engaged by health services. This study sought to confirm, from the perspective of family and carers, the importance of these seven health service engagement practices.MethodsIn a mixed method online survey, 134 family members and carers were asked what they received and what they wanted from mental health services. Participants also quantified the importance of each of the seven core practices on a 0–100 point likert scale.ResultsAlmost 250 verbatim responses were deductively matched against the seven themes, with additional unaligned responses inductively categorised. The findings triangulate with multiple diverse literatures to confirm seven fundamental engagement practices that carers and family want from health services. Conceptually, the seven practices are represented by two broad overarching practice themes of (i) meeting the needs of the family member and (ii) addressing the needs of the service user.ConclusionPolicy, clinical practice, training and future research might encompass the seven core practices along with consideration of the intertwined relationship of family, carers and the service user suggested by the two broader concepts.
Highlights
Substantial and important benefits flow to all stakeholders, including the service user, when mental health services meaningfully engage with carers and family members
Qualitative responses- deductive analysis There was a total of 249 responses to the question, ‘what have you as a carer/family member received’ and 223 responses from the question, ‘what they would have liked to have received’
Together the qualitative and quantitative findings from this study support the seven family and carer engagement practices identified from previous survey instruments [34,35,36], research reviews and studies [37,38,39] and file audit tools [40, 41]
Summary
Substantial and important benefits flow to all stakeholders, including the service user, when mental health services meaningfully engage with carers and family members. A synthesis of currently used surveys, relevant research and audit tools indicates seven core ways that families and carers might be engaged by health services. This study sought to confirm, from the perspective of family and carers, the importance of these seven health service engagement practices. Maybery et al BMC Health Services Research (2021) 21:1073 of 40 h per week of care [5] Twelve percent of those carers were aged 15 to 24 years of age. This paper is concerned with translating these guidelines and policy documents into practice by conceptualising the fundamental ways that family and carers might engage with and/or be engaged by health services
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
