Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov;26(4):302-314.
doi: 10.1177/1074840720964397. Epub 2020 Oct 23.

Young Adults and Their Families Living With Mental Illness: Evaluation of the Usefulness of Family-Centered Support Conversations in Community Mental Health care Settings

Lisbeth Kjelsrud Aass  1 , Hege Skundberg-Kletthagen  1 , Agneta Schrøder  1   2 , Øyfrid Larsen Moen  1
Affiliations

Young Adults and Their Families Living With Mental Illness: Evaluation of the Usefulness of Family-Centered Support Conversations in Community Mental Health care Settings

Lisbeth Kjelsrud Aass et al. J Fam Nurs. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of Family-Centered Support Conversations (FCSC) offered in community mental health care in Norway to young adults and their families experiencing mental illness. The FCSC is a family nursing intervention based on the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models and the Illness Beliefs Model and is focused on how family members can be supportive to each other, how to identify strengths and resources of the family, and how to share and reflect on the experiences of everyday life together while living with mental illness. Interviews were conducted with young adults and their family members in Norway who had received the FCSC intervention and were analyzed using phenomenography. Two descriptive categories were identified: "Facilitating the sharing of reflections about everyday life" and "Possibility of change in everyday life." The family nursing conversations about family structure and function in the context of mental illness allowed families to find new meanings and possibilities in everyday life. Health care professionals can play an important role in facilitating a safe environment for young adults and their families to talk openly about the experience of living with and managing mental illness.

Keywords: community mental health care; family intervention; family nursing; mental illness; young adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Aass L. K., Skundberg-Kletthagen H., Schröder A., Moen Ø. L. (2020). It’s not a race, it’s a marathon! Families living with a young adult suffering from mental illness. Issues in Mental Health Nursing. Advance online publication. 10.1080/01612840.2020.1770384 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andershed B., Ewertzon M., Johansson A. (2017). An isolated involvement in mental health care: Experiences of parents of young adults. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(7–8), 1053–1065. 10.1111/jocn.13560 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Arnett J. J., Žukauskienė R., Sugimura K. (2014). The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18–29 years: Implications for mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1(7), 569–576. 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00080-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Åstedt-Kurki P., Paavilainen E., Lehti K. (2001). Methodological issues in interviewing families in family nursing research. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35(2), 288–293. 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01845.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bell J. M., Wright L. M. (2011). The Illness Beliefs Model: Creating practice knowledge for families experiencing illness suffering. In Svarvarsdottir E. K., Jonsdottir H. (Eds.), Family nursing in action (pp. 15–51). University of Iceland Press.