Family therapy when a parent suffers from psychiatric disorder

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511543838.024

22 - Family therapy when a parent suffers from psychiatric disorder

from Part V - Child-sensitive therapeutic interventions

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2009

Alan Cooklin and

Edited by

Jeni Webster and

Michael Göpfert: Affiliation:
Webb House Democratic Therapeutic Community, Crewe
Jeni Webster: Affiliation:
5 Boroughs Partnership, Warrington
Mary V. Seeman: Affiliation:
University of Toronto

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Summary

Introduction

This chapter considers the following questions:

Why work with the family?
Who is the family to be worked with?
What are relevant approaches to treatment?
What are the goals of treatment?

Why work with the family?

Family therapy with patients with mental illness has progressed from an assumption and/or hope that a change in the relationship patterns of the individuals in the family could ‘cure’, for example schizophrenia, to an evidence-based model in which family members are helped, in a collaborative manner, to develop more effective and less intrusive problem-solving techniques. These techniques focus on positive ways to respond to the illness associated with the behaviour of the patient.

The important differences in these two approaches are discussed below. Neither approach has specifically considered the need to help patients in their role of parent. Also, to our knowledge, neither the outcome studies aimed at lowering relapse rates of patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorders, nor studies targeting family burden (Magliano et al., 1999; Perlick et al., 2001) have addressed the adverse effects of illness on dependent children nor how parents with mental illness can be helped to mitigate such effects.

Whilst being mentally ill is both painful and lonely for the sufferer, involving, as it does, a ‘loss of mind’ as well as a reliable sense of ‘self’, living with such a person may be extremely traumatic for a vulnerable child (Moltz, 1993; Pearlmutter, 1996).

Keywords

children Chrysoulla family therapy Irma Mental Health Matters workshops parent

Type: Chapter
Information: Parental Psychiatric Disorder
Distressed Parents and their Families
, pp. 306 - 322

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511543838.024 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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References

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22 - Family therapy when a parent suffers from psychiatric disorder

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