Family Therapy

Family Therapy
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Article 1
O’Hanlon et al. (2018) discussed Behavioral Family Therapy (BFT) in patients with schizophrenia. In these patients, the family’s engagement is significant in psychoeducation because they are placed in various and extreme stresses secondary to their experiences with the patients. They are also prone to developing several mental health illnesses. Therefore, training the family members will provide them a foundation to maintain their well-being. Specifically, this will support their relationship with the patient and healthcare providers by improving their communication and problem-solving skills (pp. 45-46).
The researchers subjected each family to weekly or fortnightly intervals for one hour. The sessions commenced in the office or at home with two specialists. The first is the patient’s psychiatrist, and the second is an expert with family and behavioral family therapies. The latter is responsible for implementing and monitoring the approach (O’Hanlon, 2018, p. 48). The results revealed three main points: First, the health providers can utilize their partnership with the family members to understand the patient and exchange information, which is essential in the treatment progression. Second, practitioners need to find solutions on how to appropriately respond to the extreme levels of apprehension of the family members, precisely due to the susceptibility of schizophrenic patients to abuses, aggression, and discrimination. Third, the reinforcement of the therapeutic alliance will help progress the BFT services (O’Hanlon, 2018, p. 45).
To elaborate on each point, we shall incorporate the results of the study into practice. The first point entails reducing the anxiety of the family members about their experiences with patient caring. The results revealed that the early sessions increased the hopes and expectations of the participants. The primary factors that supported them are enhancing their communication skills and the opportunity to share their information. Based on the interviews, most of them would like to understand the behavior and actions of the patient truly. This will help them know what to do when they have issues (O’Hanlon, 2018, pp. 50-51). Most family members are stressed in practice because they cannot control the situation, especially when the patient has been attacked. Often, they cannot understand what is happening due to the lack of information as they base their comprehension on emotions rather than rationality. Moreover, their fears are augmented by the difficulty in communication with the patient, and they cannot share the situation with other people as most of them misunderstand. Hence, building a connection with the psychiatrists helps provide them the right advice.
The second point showed that although the participants showed high hopes, they have trepidations because most feel their personal space is invaded. This is enhanced by the anonymity of the physician about the direction of the question. To quote, one of the participants told them that, “you don’t know what you’re going to fire at us.” (O’Hanlon, 2018, p. 51). The physicians must un...