Family therapy

• Family therapy aims to reduce levels of expressed emotion, especially negative ones, which create stress. Reducing stress decreases the likelihood of relapse. The therapist encourages the family to form a therapeutic alliance whereby they all agree on the aims of therapy.
• The therapist also aims to improve family's beliefs and behaviours towards schizophrenia. The aim is to ensure that family members achieve a balance between caring for an individual with schizophrenia and maintaining their own lives.
• model of practice by Burbach: phases one and two is where they share information and identify resources the family has to offer. For example, one person may be more supportive and the other more logic orientated, so they can provide different kinds of support to the person with schizophrenia.
• Phases 3 and 4 is when they learn motivational understanding and look at unhelpful patterns of interacting. Phases 5, 6 and 7 are skills training, e.g. stress and management techniques. where they focus on relapse prevention and maintenance.
• A strength of family therapy is that there is research to support that it is effective. McFarlane concluded family therapy is effective for schizophrenia since after relapse rates reduced by 50-60%. This was particularly promising during the time when mental health initially starts to decline. NICE recommends family therapy, meaning family therapy is good for people with both early and full-blown schizophrenia.
• A weakness of family therapy is that it is argued to help make sense of the symptoms but doesn't cure them. While family therapy provides emotional support and coping strategies, it does not eliminate the core symptoms of schizophrenia. This means that factors and other factors need to be taken into consideration to treat schizophrenia more holistically.
• The strength of family therapy is that it does not only have benefits for the family and patients, but also for the economy. Family therapy lessens the negative impact of schizophrenia on the family, as well as strengthening ability of the family to give support. Family therapy has resulted in significant cost savings when offered to patients with schizophrenia. in addition to standard care because of lower risk of relapse.