The family model handbook : an integrated approach to supporting mentally ill parents and their children / Adrian Falkov

Chapter 1 - Introduction; Chapter 2 - Overview: breadth, burden, barriers and benefits; Chapter 3 - Conceptual approaches; Chapter 4 - The Family Model: introduction; Chapter 5 - The Family Model: individual domains; Chapter 6 - The Family Model: relationships and linkages between key domains; Chapter 7 - The Family Model: approaches to practice; Chapter 8 - Services and systems organisational frameworks; Chapter 9 - Prevention and early intervention: achieving family-focused mental health services; Chapter 10 - Conclusions: challenging the status quo.

All individuals who experience mental illness are, or have at some point been, part of a family. Families play a vital role in everybody's experience of mental illness, and ill-health in turn has a critical and enduring influence on family life. The ways in which symptoms interact with and are influenced by the affected individual's unique constellation of relationships will determine the onset, course and prognosis of any illness. A key principle in the achievement of greater family focused care is the explicit recognition that parenting is a mental health issue and that investment in families as a whole brings benefits beyond the well-being and recovery of the affected adult as an individual. The family model is a conceptual approach to practice, first introduced in the original Crossing Bridges programme and now extensively revised and refined in the light of new developments. This handbook provides all the necessary knowledge to use the family model and to help clinicians to think more broadly about symptoms and their implications in an individual who is also a parent or carer, and to consider potential impacts and opportunities for children and other family members. The handbook can be used by staff across all mental health and mental health services, non-governmental organisations/third sector and voluntary agencies, as well as primary care settings. The handbook includes an interactive CD-ROM that provides a new way of easily exploring the family model and its implications for working with families affected by mental illness. It includes full colour diagrams as well as extra resources to enhance the learning experience and facilitate a better understanding of the family model concept.