ArticleBMC health services research2021
Mental health service engagement with family and carers: what practices are fundamental?
Article in BMC health services research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guideline
- Women's experiences of specialist perinatal mental health services: a qualitative evidence synthesis.Archives of women's mental health · 2023Pooled it
- 'Knocking on the Door, Saying, "Can We Come in?"': Carers' Experiences of Engagement With Healthcare Workers in Inpatient Mental Health Services.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
- Values-Led Coordination: Connect Coordination Victoria and the Establishment of a State-Wide Network of Family Carer Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect Centres.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Connect Coordination Victoria and the Establishment of a State-Wide Network of Family Carer Mental Health and Well-being Connect Centres: Family Carer Lived Experience Leadership Through Online Community Co-Design, Communities of Practice and Power Sharing.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Caught between Two Cultures: Understanding Mental Health and Help-Seeking among Australian Indian Families.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- A systematic review of co-production approaches that involve family members, loved ones, or carers in the development of mental health or substance use resources/interventions.Research involvement and engagement · 2025Review
- Realist review protocol for understanding young people's experiences of engaging with police-mental health practitioner collaboration in emergency responses to mental health crises.Systematic reviews · 2025Article
- An Explorative Study on the Role of Family Members in Caring for Mental Health Care Users in South Africa.Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing · 2025Article
- Exploring the Meaning of Collaboration in Rural Mental Healthcare Delivery From the Perspective of Mental Health Clinicians and Informal Carers of People Living With a Mental Health Illness-A Qualitative Study.International journal of mental health nursing · 2025Article
- In Pursuit of Recovery: A Comparative Study of Stakeholder Perspectives on Outcomes of People with Psychosis.Community mental health journal · 2025Article
- Strategies to Alleviate the Burden Experienced by Informal Caregivers of Persons With Severe Mental Disorders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Scoping Review.Interactive journal of medical research · 2024Article
- The journey of service users with complex mental health needs: a qualitative study.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2024Article
- Perspectives of Hospitalized Mental Health Care Users Concerning the Involvement of Family Members in Their Care: A Qualitative Study.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2023Article
- Psychoanalysis of COVID-19 Patient Narratives: A Descriptive Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Capacity-based legislation in Norway has so far scarcely influenced the daily life and responsibilities of patients' carers: a qualitative study.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- The duty of confidentiality during family involvement: ethical challenges and possible solutions in the treatment of persons with psychotic disorders.BMC psychiatry · 2022Article
- Barriers and facilitators of access and utilization of mental health services among forensic service users along the care pathway.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Getting the FACS: A Protocol for Developing a Survey Instrument to Measure Carer and Family Engagement with Mental Health Services.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Barriers to WHO Mental Health Action Plan updates to expand family and caregiver involvement in mental healthcare.General psychiatry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSubstantial and important benefits flow to all stakeholders, including the service user, when mental health services meaningfully engage with carers and family members. Government policies around the world clearly supports inclusiveness however health service engagement with family and carers remains sporadic, possibly because how best to engage is unclear. A synthesis of currently used surveys, relevant research and audit tools indicates seven core ways that families and carers might be engaged by health services. This study sought to confirm, from the perspective of family and carers, the importance of these seven health service engagement practices.
methodsIn a mixed method online survey, 134 family members and carers were asked what they received and what they wanted from mental health services. Participants also quantified the importance of each of the seven core practices on a 0-100 point likert scale.
resultsAlmost 250 verbatim responses were deductively matched against the seven themes, with additional unaligned responses inductively categorised. The findings triangulate with multiple diverse literatures to confirm seven fundamental engagement practices that carers and family want from health services. Conceptually, the seven practices are represented by two broad overarching practice themes of (i) meeting the needs of the family member and (ii) addressing the needs of the service user.
conclusionPolicy, clinical practice, training and future research might encompass the seven core practices along with consideration of the intertwined relationship of family, carers and the service user suggested by the two broader concepts.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.