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Worker, workplace or families: What influences family focused practices in adult mental health?
Author(s) -
Maybery D.,
Goodyear M.,
Reupert A. E.,
Grant A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/jpm.12294
Subject(s) - mental health , psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry
Accessible summary What is known on the subject? Family focused practice leads to positive outcomes for parents and children. There are barriers and enablers for practitioners being family focused.What this paper adds to existing knowledge? Worker skill, knowledge and confidence about family work are the most important factors associated with family focused practices.What are the implications for practice? Mental health nurses require specific skill training in family focused practices, time to engage with clients on parenting issues and that there are adequate services to refer family members to.Abstract Introduction Family focused practice is thought to lead to positive outcomes for all family members. However, there are multiple barriers and enablers in adult mental health services to practitioners undertaking these actions. Aim The aim of this study was to examine the relative importance of worker, workforce and family factors to predict family focused practices ( FFP s) in adult mental health services. Method Three hundred and seven adult mental health workers completed a 45 items family focused practice measure of 16 family focused practices. Thesis It was found that worker skill and knowledge about family work and an ability to assess the degree of parental insight into the child's connections to other family members and the community were important predictors of FFP , along with the closely related‐worker confidence. While aspects of the worker, workplace and family each contribute to FFP s, this study highlighted the importance of worker skill, knowledge and confidence as central issues for adult mental health workers. Implications for practice Study implications include the need for training in specific FFP s, the provision of time to engage with clients on parenting issues and the need 5 to ensure that there are adequate services for workers to refer family members to.