Leave No One in the Waiting Room: Family and Mental Health

Imagine presenting to a hospital to pick up your loved one after a serious health event only to find that they have been discharged to the street. This is a true story that Nicole Gillen shares as a parent of an adult living with a mental health condition. Stories like this are not uncommon.

But it’s not the only story she shares

Gillen also shares the many ways that providers have been helpful and important in her family’s recovery. Each day, therapists, community support specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists, peer support specialists, and others go to exceptional and creative means to engage and support individuals and families affected by mental illness. Our field is overextended, yet each day, providers step up to meet the need.

As a therapist supporting individuals and families affected by these challenges, I have heard stories of professionals dismissing family, blaming family for their loved one's illness, or even encouraging clients to distance themselves from family. I have also heard of providers giving critical and compassionate support. Doing things like attending a school meeting with a youth and family to advocate for the child or offering support outside sessions.

These things make a difference.

Research shows that family support may be one of the best-determining factors in an individual's recovery after a mental health episode (Li et al., 2022). When a person’s support circles, which often include family, are involved, we have the best chance of keeping the person engaged in services long enough to create real change.

Still, a 2021 qualitative study found that many family members of young adults living with as serious mental health conditions felt excluded from their loved one's treatment even when the appropriate consent had been provided (Aass, 2021).

During her shared journey with her daughter, Gillen experienced the many barriers facing families (and professionals) wishing to support someone with a mental health challenge. She longed for some guide or handbook that she could share. As she attended support meetings, she gathered bits of information, compiling these into a Word document to share with others. In time, she had created her guidebook and in December of 2023, the book was published. It is titled Schizophrenia and Related Disorders: A Handbook for Families.

I picked it up

Schizophrenia and Related Disorders: A Handbook for Families

As I flipped through the pages of the handbook, my eyes were first caught by the personal stories. A poem. Remarks from both individuals affected by schizophrenia and their loved ones.

Schizophrenia typically strikes in one's young adulthood. Just as someone is leaping the dance of independent life. As a clinician, I most often talk to clients. I acknowledge their lived experience. Reading this book gave me more appreciation of the walk parents may go through when their young adult child is struggling. Most parents are not mental health clinicians, and so, in a short period, they may be dropped into a whole other world.

I found the book easy to access, breaking down the onerous maze from mental health crisis to diagnosis to treatment, as well as the barriers that often come about, including housing and legal ones. Even the best of case workers can become frustrated as walls are hit in creating pathways toward recovery. I imagined how infinitely more painful it would be for a family member.

And how grateful one might be to access a guide like this.

In Conclusion

While it is the individual's choice how much to involve their family, this needs to be a priority and ongoing conversation. The involvement of family is often key to recovery. Even if not directly our clients, the families of our clients are people too. Mental illness can be traumatic for all involved.

Families express strong gratitude when they are offered an opportunity to play a role in their loved one’s recovery, and clients benefit from the enhanced support of family. As professionals, we are only in clients’ lives for a short period, but a person’s family is usually in their lives forever.

Family psychoeducation and support have been documented to reduce rates of relapse after the first episode of psychosis (McFarlane et al., 2012). When provision of these services is unavailable, we can refer to resources in the community such as mental health support communities. I see this book as a way to let a family know that they are not alone and to orient them to the practical and emotional journey.

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No family should be left in the waiting room when their loved one needs them.