Brief Family Psycho-Education Program for Caregivers of Inpatients with Severe Mental Illness

Abstract

Introduction

Family psycho-education is an essential part of the treatment for people with severe mental illness (SMI), however this relevant intervention is underutilized. Shortened variations of family psycho-education have been described in attempts to make it more attractive, efficient, and feasible.

Objectives/aims

Considering the lack of manualized intervention for families in Brazil, our study comes up with a proposal to implement and to evaluate the feasibility of brief family psycho-education program (BFPP) during inpatient psychiatric treatment.

Methods

An extensive review using a combination of the words: “family psychoeducation”; “severe mental illness”; “schizophrenia”; “bipolar disorder” was conducted in PubMed/Medline with the aim to select reports of multifamily group psycho-educational programs. Studies involving adults with severe mental illness published until March 2016 were included.

Results

After the review of literature and meeting with experts in SMI, the BFPP was developed collaboratively by bipolar disorders’ team at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA). The standard BFPP consists of four sessions: (1) causes, symptoms, course, prognosis and stigma of severe mental disorder; (2) treatment; (3) community resources, communication skills and importance of healthy and regular habits; and (4) problem-solving strategies: preventing relapses and establishing plans for crisis. Each session will occur weekly, lasting 90 min, with 8–12 caregivers. The patients did not attend the group.

Conclusion

We purposed a standard, brief, cheap and simple intervention to apply. We believe that BFPP is highly suitable for caregivers of patients with SMI. We hope that this program demonstrates feasibility among participants and become a useful and effective intervention.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.