Mental Illness Effects The Family

Mental illness is a hard process, not just for the person, but the family as well. We don’t want to see anyone we know and love go through these type of things. Having been able to see a family member that suffers from a mental illness, it is a sad sight. It literally eats them alive, to the point where they cannot see their value anymore. We tend to put our personal feelings before their well-being, but not in a selfish way, it is a way where we don’t want to

This Case Study will be undertaken as a group activity and is designed to deepen your knowledge about mental illnesses, and to test your understanding about the nursing care of people suffering from such conditions. It will also assist you to express your ideas through class presentation and in writing.

Many people have many different definitions of a family. Some include family as the people they live with, some include their entire extended family, and some include friends, neighbors, coaches, and teachers. According to the Vanier Institute (2013), a family is “a combination of two or more persons who are bound together over time by ties of mutual consent, birth, and/or adoption” (para. 2). Whichever way you look at it, families often play a major role in life. It only makes sense that when a person begins to go through a drastic change in life such as illness, the family will be involved. This is why it is important that nurses learn how to provide suitable client and family centered care. They can do this by following the four

Nordby,K. Kjonsberg, K. Hummelvoll, J.K.(2009) Relatives of persons with recently discovered serious mental illness: in need of support to become resource persons in treatment and recovery.(Appendix 1). Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing. 17, 304-311.

As nurses, it extremely important for us to have an understanding of mental health so we can decrease the stigma in the healthcare profession. There shouldn’t be a difference between a “psychiatric nurse” and a “general nurse”. Since over 50% of the population suffers from a mental illness, both professions should be equally educated and sensitive towards health care issues.

Living with a parent suffering from a mental illness can have huge negative effects for the developing child. It has been proven numerous times that there is a genuine link between parental mental illness and its adverse effects for children, e.g. Rutter, 1966, Cleaver et all, 1999. These effects can often manifest themselves as anxiety, self-esteem issues, poor relationships, educational underachievement, and emotional and behavioural problems. It should be noted that an extremely low percentage of mentally unwell parents intentionally abuse their children physically or emotionally. Another interesting facet of the parent-child relationship within the context of mental health, is that oftentimes, the child of a mentally unwell parent can often develop the same mental illness as the parent.

The final article I analyzed was titled “Aging Parents of Adults with Serious Mental Illness” and was written by Jennifer Van Pelt. This article sought to address the type of support parents caring for special needs adult children require as they age. It discussed how parents are the primary caregivers to children with a severe mental illness, or SMI, throughout the majority of the child’s life. The amount of care provided to adults with SMI by their aging parents is so substantial that if parental caregivers stopped providing care, public programs could never handle it. The author of this article wanted to put more focus on assisting the aging caregiver population, increase their emotional well-being, and lower their stress burden through the use of a social work home-based intervention program. In the pilot study, families received instruction on problem-solving techniques, education about the adult child’s particular mental illness, and sessions that included cognitive therapy, stress management, behavioral management, and future planning. This initial study yielded promising results, including greater life satisfaction and less emotional stress reported by aging parents. The author concludes the article by discussing the importance of planning for the future and how the adult child with SMI will be taken care of after the parents’ deaths.

Children can find it hard coping if a family member has mental health issues. It can affect their lives and their emotional/social and intellectual development.

Think back to when you were a child and you became ill. All you wanted was the protection and guidance of your mother to take care of you. If you had older siblings, maybe they were the ones that helped make you feel better. Even as we grow older, we rely on our family for support when we are not well. When a family member is ill, it is not just that one person that suffers. When an illness strikes a family member, it oftentimes includes the whole family to deal with the illness also. There are different approaches that a nurse can utilize when dealing with family nursing. Approaches include family as context, as a client, system and a component of society. In this paper, I will discuss where and how these approaches are utilized.

The quality of life of family members, as well as of patients, can be hugely reduced in terms of physical effects, psychological distress, and social problems. The family members of patients experience emotions such as worry, frustration, and stress. Parents of children with physical and mental disabilities experience social problems, and the work life of family members of NCD patients is affected. Research shows that the family members of patients can be more emotionally affected by illness than patients

Families are often the main support system for people affected by mental illness. If a

This mental health issue not only affects the person but also he families. The person dealing with this will deny that they are ill, and to interpret the family’s efforts to get help as unnecessary interference because in the patient’s mind they are ok. Unless the person gains some insight into his/her condition, these symptoms can contribute to not taking their needed medication that can end up leading them into losing everything such as homes, families and job. This event can lead them also to drugs, becoming homeless and their problem getting worse to the point of death or jail.

A huge percentage of Americans suffer from various mental illnesses. 1 in 5 adults in the US, or 18.5% of the population, will experience mental illness in a given year (NAMI). With these mental illnesses come so many difficult questions. How can we improve the lives of Americans struggling with mental illnesses? What happens if these Americans become harmful to themselves or others? And how can we help and keep their families involved? The American government as well as several organizations have been trying to tackle these issues. Congressman Tim Murphy created a bill called the Helping Families in Mental Crisis Act (H.R. 2426) that seeks to “fix the nation’s broken

numerous individuals in America, with nearly 43.8 million adults in America living with a serious illness (Mental health facts in America, n.d). Many of these adults suffering with a mental illness also play the role of a mother, father, or caregiver. According to Costea (2011), “…31% of American women and about 17% of men have a 12-month prevalence of at least one psychiatric disorder, and of those 65% are mothers and 52% are fathers”. However, research focuses on the individuals suffering from a mental illness, and often overlooks the patient’s children and the distress the parents’ mental illnessmay cause on their children. Children of parents with a mental illness deal with a complex life that is filled with

The stigmas surrounding mental health create a barrier not only for the treatment of the parents suffering from these disorders but also for their children. For parents, a staggering 2/3 of the population suffering from mental illnesses, admitting that they cannot care for themselves and their children can be extremely difficult and thus their children suffer. It is said that 30-50 percent of children with mentally ill parents will have a psychiatric diagnosis in comparison to 20 percent of the general population. Many times, even when parents do choose treatment information about their children is rarely