Family Therapy Flashcards
1
Q
What is family therapy and its aim?
A
- family therapy takes place with families rather than individual patients, aiming to improve the quality of communication and interaction between family members.
2
Q
What does family therapy aim to reduce?
A
- levels of expressed emotion
3
Q
What did Pharoah et al identify?
A
- a range of strategies by which family therapists aim to improve the functioning of a family with a member suffering from schizophrenia.
4
Q
What strategies did Pharoah et al identify?
A
- forming a therapeutic alliance with all family members
- reducing the stress of caring for a relative with schizophrenia
- improving the ability of the family to anticipate and solve problems
- reduction of anger and guilt in family members
- helping family members achieve a balance between caring for the individual with schizophrenia and maintaining their own lives
- improving families’ beliefs about and behaviour towards schizophrenia
5
Q
How did Pharoah et al suggest these strategies work?
A
- by reducing levels of stress and expressed emotion, whilst increasing the chances of patients’ complying with medication.
- this combination of benefits tends to result in a reduced likelihood of relapse and re-admission to hospital.
6
Q
Evaluation: Evidence For Effectiveness
A
- Strength = evidence of its effectiveness
- McFarlane: Review of studies concluded that family therapy was one of the most consistently effective treatments available for schizophrenia.
- In particular, relapse rates were found to be reduced, typically by 50-60%.
- Clinical advice from NICE recommends family therapy for everyone who is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
7
Q
Evaluation: Benefits To The Whole Family
A
- Strength= benefits for all the family members.
- Therapy aims to benefit the individual and benefit the families who provide the bulk of care.
- By strengthening the functioning of a whole family, family therapy lessens the negative impact of schizophrenia on other family members and strengthens the ability of the family to support the person with schizophrenia.
8
Q
Evaluation: Economic Benefits
A
- Strength = considerable economic benefits associated with the treatment of schizophrenia.
- The NICE review of family studies demonstrated that family therapy is associated with significant cost savings when offered to people with schizophrenia in addition to standard care.
- The extra cost of family therapy is offset by a reduction in costs of hospitalisation because of the lower relapse rates associated with this form of intervention.
