The 7 fundamental ways that mental health services should engage with carers and family.

Abstract

Having a parent with a mental illness doubles the risk of children also developing a mental health problems later in life. However, the influence of parental mental illness can be negated by targeted and integrated care. Thirty six percent of clients attending adult mental health services (AMHS) have children under 18 (Ruud et al., 2019) and when mental health service providers, service users and their carers/family successfully integrate their care and perspectives, widespread benefits flow to all stakeholders. However, mental health services do not commonly engage with carers or family. This presentation describes (a) an extensive review of the literature and (b) mixed method feedback from 134 carers/family members about what they received and wanted from mental health services. The findings triangulate carer/family PPI with multiple diverse literatures, to confirm 7 fundamental engagement practices that carers/family want from health services. International delegates will understand from this presentation the ‘fundamental’ ways that mental health services should engage with carers and family of mental health service users. They will also understand how and why such engagement is ‘fundamental’ to the wellbeing of both service users, their carers and family members.