This month, we focus on the Kansas Family Partnership.  In the winter of 2006, NAMI Kansas and the KU School of Social Welfare began to talk about how to implement Family Psychoeducation in Kansas. From that initial meeting, Kansas Family Partnership was born. Kansas Family Partnership is based on the SAMHSA Family Psychoeducation model, an evidence-based psychiatric rehabilitation practice that aims to achieve the best possible outcome for consumers with severe mental illness through collaborative treatment between clinicians, consumers, and family members. 

INTRODUCING THE KANSAS FAMILY PARTNERSHIP

A Family Psychoeducation Project

By Susan Campbell, M.Ed. and Sue Ellen Jayne, LMSW

University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare, Office of Mental Health Research & Training

What is the Kansas Family Partnership?

            Kansas Family Partnership is a family-consumer-professional partnership that combines clear, accurate information about mental illness with developing social networks and training in problem solving, communication, and coping skills. This partnership attempts to alleviate the stress experienced by family members by supporting them in their efforts to aid in the recovery of their loved one. Critical ingredients of effective Family Partnership include a collaborative relationship between the treatment team and family, basic psychoeducation about psychiatric illness and its management, social support and empathy, interventions targeted to reducing tension and stress in the family as well as improving functioning in all family members within a structured program of nine months or more.

Who is participating?

Two Kansas Community Mental Health Centers, Valeo Behavioral in Topeka and South Central Mental Health in El Dorado, started implementation of Kansas Family Partnership in January, 2008.  Along with staff from these centers, NAMI representatives from each location are participating in the implementation. Families participating in Kansas Family Partnership will be referred to the local NAMI chapter as an additional resource and will be encouraged to become members. The University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare Office of Mental Health Research and Training is providing the consultation, training, and fidelity monitoring for this project.

Components of the Model:

Successful implementation of the program consists of the following:

1)    training for staff to implement the program;

2)    monthly leadership team meetings; and

3)    monthly practitioners’ group supervision with training.

Once the practitioners have identified and engaged consumers diagnosed with Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder to educate them about the program, then the consumers and their families are asked to participate in 3 to 5 individual joining sessions. The joining sessions focus on the family reaction to the psychiatric disability, precipitating factors, prodromal signs, and identification and teaching of coping skills. Families who agree to participate in the Family partnership are invited to attend a one day educational workshop covering psychobiology, diagnosis education, treatment and rehabilitation, reactions to experiencing psychosis as a family, and relapse prevention. The multifamily group meets twice a month for at least 9 months and follows a structured procedure with structured problem-solving techniques within the group.

What does the research tell us?

            Extensive research shows that implementing family psychoeducation in mental health settings dramatically improves the lives of people diagnosed with Schizophrenia.  Over 16 controlled clinical trials when compared to standard outpatient treatment (individual therapy and medication management) have shown the following: 

Much lower relapse rates and rehospitalization after one year:

50-75% reduction of relapse rates compared to the control groups

·         Increased employment:

            At least twice the number of consumers employed with some           studies up to four times greater; over 50% employed after two      years, when combined with supported employment

·         Reduced negative symptoms associated with the psychiatric disability.

·         Improved family relationships and reduced friction and family burden.

·         Reduced medical illness in family members:

            Doctor visits for family members decreased by over 50% in one       year

·         Low cost-benefit ratio, especially in savings from reduced hospital admissions, reduction in hospital days, and in crisis intervention contacts.

·         Net decrease in staff time, expense, stress, and effort when the family is involved on a routine basis.

            Expecting family members to respond in the most helpful manner to the symptoms of Schizophrenia without some knowledge base and understanding is unrealistic.  This program provides the knowledge and understanding that family members can use to assist their family member on the path to recovery.  Family members can provide support and help a loved one work toward identifying and pursuing the consumer’s recovery goals.

SAMHSA Website for the Toolkit:

            http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/communitysupport/toolkits/family

McFarlane WR. Multifamily Groups in the Treatment of Severe Psychiatric Disorders. New York: Guilford Press, 2002.