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‘I'm not a family therapist. OK?’ Working Constructively with Families in Aged Psychiatry
Author(s) -
Hudgson Catherine,
Rycroft Pam,
Giri Shraeveni
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0814-723X
DOI - 10.1017/aft.2012.40
Subject(s) - feeling , mental health , psychology , psychological intervention , work (physics) , mental health service , quality (philosophy) , project commissioning , value (mathematics) , family therapy , phase (matter) , function (biology) , publishing , social psychology , psychiatry , political science , mechanical engineering , philosophy , chemistry , organic chemistry , epistemology , machine learning , evolutionary biology , law , computer science , engineering , biology
This paper reports on the first phase of a larger study aimed at investigating factors hindering family work and exploring ways to improve the amount and quality of family contact within a community aged mental health service in Melbourne, Australia. During the first phase of the project, 28 mental health professionals were interviewed about their views and experiences. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analysed in terms of repeating themes. The range of attitudes, beliefs and feelings about family work is summarised in this paper. Polarities emerged around questions of whether or not to engage family members, and if so, what function family work fulfils. The interviews also provided useful information on clinicians' beliefs about what would increase the possibility of family work. The paper concludes with a discussion about how to recognize and value family work in this area and target sustainable interventions during the second phase of the study.