Psychoses

Caregivers play an important role in the treatment and recovery of people with psychosis but they have different needs from service users and can experience significant distress as part of their role. Responding to caregiver needs is not readily identified as being the primary responsibility of clinical services that have limited resources. A small pilot study sought to evaluate the effect and acceptability of providing a brief, needs-led intervention to long-term caregivers of service users with psychosis.

AIM: To evaluate service users' and carers' views on the early intervention in psychosis service in relation to best-practice guidelines. METHOD: Both groups were sent a questionnaire on their experiences of care provided. RESULTS: The majority responded positively to many items, indicating they thought the team met best-practice guidance.

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between carer expressed emotion, patients’ symptoms and carer characteristics during a recent relapse of psychosis. A total of 86 patients and carers were investigated in a cross-sectional design. Patients whose carers showed high expressed emotion had significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression, but not more psychotic symptoms or lower self-esteem. Linear regression showed that carers’ critical comments predicted anxiety in patients. Critical comments were related to low carer self-esteem and avoidant coping strategies.

NHS teams should also make carers aware of statutory right to social services assessment and explain process. [Journal abstract]

Carers play an essential role in the lives of people suffering from mental health problems. Caring is very often a relational activity carried out by family members. Assertive Outreach (AO) services ought to be particularly well placed to support carers, but their impact upon families is not well understood. We set out to understand the intervention of AO services from a family perspective, and in particular to explore its meaning from the perspectives of pairs of carers. Three pairs of carer-parents participated in six individual open-ended interviews.