“Negotiating partnerships:” parents’ experiences of collaboration in community mental health and substance use services

This study emphasises that parents should be seen as unique individuals as well as families. Parents are persons in different contexts. This creates different needs in their collaboration with the professionals. Parents want to be invited to contribute with their experiences and knowledge, being a collaborative partner in the service provision, and not a burden for their young adults, or to the professionals. Social implications This study emphasises that it may be important to understand the complex situations of ea ch family parent, supporting their loved ones and at the same time living lives of their own. Families are in demanding and stressful situations often over many years. They want to be invited to contribute with their experiences and knowledge, being a collaborative partner in the service provision, and not a burden for their young adults, or to the professionals. Originality/value The importance of collaboration is well established in in the mental health field. However, there has been less attention to what collaboration with parents might involve in practice. This paper describes the colla borative experiences of parents of young adults (18-28 years) with co-occurring mental health and substance use problems.
Source: Advances in Dual Diagnosis - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research