The Importance of Family-Centered Mental Healthcare
The Importance of Family-Centered Mental Healthcare
January 13, 2017
A research study, conducted among families with relatives being treated at the Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, which is affiliated with BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences, examined the families’ needs.
Study participants were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing four potential areas of assistance, and the respondents ranked the extent of their need for each item.
The study found that families ranked the need for “information and knowledge” highest.
“We saw that the items relating to the influence of the sick individual on the personal functioning of the family member that asked for assistance were rated higher than items relating to the effect on the functioning of other family members,” says Anat Shalev, MSW, of the Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, who also teaches community health in BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
Shalev conducted the research in collaboration with Dr. Ron Shor from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their findings were recently published in the Israeli journal Medicine.
Previous research has given limited attention to the needs of the family members of people with mental illness who are in psychiatric hospitals, in spite of the tensions and difficulties they experience.
In recognition of the importance of family-centered care in a psychiatric setting, an innovative model of counseling and support centers for families (Mital) was developed by the Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center. It won an award from the Israeli Ministry of Health and serves as a model for mental health centers throughout Israel.
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