Understanding Family-Centered Care in the Mental Health System: Perspectives From Family Members Caring for Relatives With Mental Health Issues

Abstract

A recent focus on Family-Centered Care (FCC) in mental health has resulted in a variety of recommendations designed to increase family involvement in caring for relatives with mental health issues. Studies indicate that family members require collaboration, information, and support from the mental health system and its providers, but confidentiality concerns, funding limitations, and discrimination often prevent such needs from being met. A qualitative, exploratory study using in-person interviews has been implemented to consider how family members describe and understand their experiences with the mental health system. A critical, Foucauldian analysis is applied to the data to expose hidden systems of domination and oppression that may be contributing to discriminatory attitudes and practices that interfere with family involvement. Results of this research reiterate those found in the FCC literature; however, family members in this study seem hesitant to identify discrimination as a primary obstacle to FCC. It appears that complex processes may be at work that elicit the participation of family members in the reproduction of discrimination by interfering with their ability to recognize and resist its multiple and subtle forms. Recommendations for resistance include cultivating a critical awareness to disrupt dominant assumptions that inform discriminatory attitudes and practices.