Abstract
Background: Relapse prevention in mental health care is important. Utilising the strengths of families can be a valuable approach in relapse prevention. Studies on family strengths have been conducted but little has been done on the strengths of family members to help limit relapse in mental health care users. The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the strengths of family members in assisting mental health care users to limit relapses.Methods: A phenomenological design was followed. Purposive sampling was used and 15 family members of mental health care users who have not relapsed in the previous two years participated. Individual unstructured interviews were conducted. Data were analyse dusing thematic analysis.Results: Four main themes were identified, namely accepting the condition of the mental health care users, having faith, involving the mentally ill family members in daily activities and being aware of what aggravates the mentally ill family members.Conclusions: Family members go through a process of acceptance and receive educational information and assistance from health professionals. In this process families discover and apply their strengths to limit relapses of mentally ill family members. It is important that family members caring for mentally ill family members are involved in their treatment from the onset, and that they are guided through a process of acceptance.
Highlights
According to Berglund, Vahlne and Edman (2003), caring for mental health care users can be a burden to these families, while a lack of support by families can lead to mental health care users experiencing relapses
The family members experienced specific initial emotions From the findings of this research it seems that family members experience specific emotions and difficulties when their mentally ill family members are diagnosed the first time with a mental illness
Reflecting on the data gained from the family members which literature confirmed, it became evident that these family members go through a process of initially not accepting the mentally ill family members due to emotional disturbance and negative attitudes, but through education from health professionals they accepted them
Summary
According to Berglund, Vahlne and Edman (2003), caring for mental health care users can be a burden to these families, while a lack of support by families can lead to mental health care users experiencing relapses. Building the strengths of families can be a valuable approach to relapse prevention (Sittner, Hudson, & Defrain, 2007). Studies on family strengths have been conducted but little has been done on the strengths of family members to help limit relapse in mental health care users. The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the strengths of family members in assisting mental health care users to limit relapses. Conclusions: Family members go through a process of acceptance and receive educational information and assistance from health professionals. In this process families discover and apply their strengths to limit relapses of mentally ill family members. It is important that family members caring for mentally ill family members are involved in their treatment from the onset, and that they are guided through a process of acceptance
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