Family Therapy

• The aim of family therapy is to reduce anger, frustration and expressed emotion
• The therapy meets both the family members and the patient for open, productive, discussion
• The therapy educates family members (through psychoeducation) about the disorder and what to expect and encourages the family to develop problem-solving and communication skills to help the patient
• What did Pharoah (2010) suggest that FT aims to do?

  • Reduce negative emotions which reduces the possibility of a relapse
  • Improve the ability of the family- help family members form a therapeutic alliance where beliefs about the disorder are improved and the family find a balance between caring for the person with SZ and having their own life
• Burbach (2018) suggested a phase model to use:

  1. Sharing info- emotional/practical support
  2. Identifying resources (what family can/cannot offer)
  3. Encourage mutual understanding and safe spaces for emotional expression
  4. Identifying unhelpful patterns of interaction
  5. Skills training (e.g. stress management)
  6. Relapse prevention planning
  7. Maintenance for the future
• What were the relapse rates reduced by in McFarlane's (2016) research?

  McFarlane: Family therapy is one of the most consistently effective treatment for SZ- with relapse rates reduced by 50-60%
• What did National Institute for health and Care Excellence (NICE (2018)) recommend about Family Therapy?

  It seems that using FT early in the onset of the disorder is helpful- NICE (2018) recommended that FT should be offered to ALL people diagnosed with SZ who are in contact with/ live with family members. They also argued that is should be a priority where there are persistent symptoms or a high risk of relapse
• It is possible that positive findings on the effect of FT on SZ could be less to do with improvements and more to do with the fact it increases medical compliance- the patients are more likely to benefit from the drugs if the family encourages them to take them
• FT requires engagement from the family- so it may not work if the openness needed reopens old tensions
• FT does appear to be cost-effective as relapse is reduced (+ medical compliance)- this reduced the need for medical help
• The Schizophrenia Commission (2012) estimates that FT, even through longitudinal, is cheaper than standard care (drugs alone) by £1,004 a patient over 3 years