Lavis, Anna, Lester, Helen, Everard, Linda, Freemantle, Nicholas, Amos, Tim, Fowler, David, Hodgekins, Jo, Jones, Peter, Marshall, Max, Sharma, Vimal, Larsen, John, McCrone, Paul, Singh, Swaran, Smith, Jo and Birchwood, Max
(2015)
Layers of Listening: A Qualitative Analysis of the Impact of Early Intervention Services for First-Episode Psychosis on Carers’ Experiences.
The British Journal of Psychiatry, 207 (2).
pp. 135-142.
ISSN 1472-1465
Abstract
Aims: By analysing carers’ accounts of their daily lives and affective challenges during a relative’s FEP against the background of wider research into EIS, this paper explores relationships between carers’ experiences and EIS. Method: Semi-structured longitudinal interviews with 80 carers of young people with FEP treated through English EIS. Results: Our data suggest that EIS successfully aid carers to support their relatives, particularly through the provision of knowledge about psychosis and medications. However, paradoxical ramifications of these user-focused engagements also emerge; they risk leaving carers’ emotions unacknowledged and compounding an existing lack of help-seeking. Conclusions: By focusing on EIS’s engagements with carers, this paper draws attention to an urgent broader question: as a continuing emphasis on care outside the clinic space places family members at the heart of the care of those with severe mental illness, we ask: who can, and should, support carers, and in what ways?
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