Samverkan och stöd för närstående till personer med schizofreni
Background: Relatives to people with schizophrenia often experience a great burden and inmany cases takes a lot of responsibility for the person suffering from schizophrenia. Nationalguidelines emphasize the importance for relatives to be involved in mental health care, butunfortunately that is not always the case. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigateand describe how relatives to people with schizophrenia have experienced collaboration andsupport from mental health services, and what requests they might have for the futureregarding the design of collaboration and support. Method: Qualitative approach. Interviewbased study with qualitative content analysis as a method. Results: Two different themes andeleven categories describing the relatives experiences and preferences regarding collaborationand support from mental health services. These two themes are; To be taken for granted butstill left out and Lack of support leading to feelings of loneliness and insecurity. The firsttheme symbolizes collaboration and includes five categories. The second theme symbolizessupport and includes six categories. Conclusion: Relatives to people with schizophrenia havepredominantly negative experiences of collaboration with staff in psychiatric care. Governingdocuments states that relatives should be involved in patient care and treatment. To developand implement successful practices around this, it is important that the staff will discussissues such as confidentiality, attitude, responsibility, inclusion and accessibility. Therelatives have both positive and negative experiences of support from mental health services.If regards should be taken to the relative?s requests about how the support should be designed,their insecurities and feelings of loneliness would decrease. Relationships, knowledge, reliefand personalized support are crucial areas that should be discussed by the staff in psychiatriccare. Quality improvement and development in this area would make it easier for relatives,staff and patients.