A Process Evaluation of the Building Family Skills Together Initiative: Implementing Behavioural Family Therapy in a Continuing
Research Team: Brendan O’Hanlon, Amaryll Perlesz, Colin Riess, Peter McKenzie, Carol Harvey (University of Melbourne / North Western Mental Health)
Summary: Family interventions are effective in reducing relapse for people suffering from schizophrenia and reducing distress for family members, yet they are rarely provided in routine care in public mental health services. BFST is an implementation and research project that aims to introduce an evidence-based family intervention, Behavioural Family Therapy (BFT), into routine clinical practice within an Area Mental Health Service. It also aims to better understand the particular value and limitations of embedding a specialist Family Practice Consultant in a mental health service as a key element in the implementation strategy.
Findings: Data from the first families completing BFT point to reductions in relapse rates and use of acute services, and families report improvements for the consumer, family members and in the relationship with treating staff. Consistent with overseas findings some staff have yet to provide BFT more than twelve months after training and most clinicians average 1-2 families at any one time.
Preliminary analysis of data from the Mentoring Groups revealed important themes suggesting factors that both inhibited and enabled the use of BFT.
Inhibiting factors included: family characteristics; having suitable families within a caseload; features of the BFT model; organisational factors (case load, time-in-lieu provisions, after hours work, staff turnover); and anticipated and actual negative experiences with families. Enabling factors were: pre-existing contact with families, seeing families soon after training; working with the Family Practice Consultant; observed improvement in the consumer; families shifting from hostility to appreciation; family reports of improvements in relationships; enhanced clinical assessment; new appreciation of families and positive emotional experiences with families.
More information about this project can be found on the Mental Health pages of this website.
Funding: Partially funded by the DHS Mental Health
