A family approach

Mental Health Nursing,  Sep 2006  by Freeman, John

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A family approach Advanced family work for schizophrenia: an evidence-based approach Julian Left (2005) Gaskell ISBN: 1904 67127 6 Paperback, 100 pages £15

The first thing that struck me about this book is how small it is - at 100 pages, it is much more compact than other recent texts focusing on similar work. The explanation for this is clear however - the book is a companion volume to Leff's 2002 text, Family work for schizophrenia.

Essentially, this companion book is a series of 19 anonymised case studies illustrating the most difficult problems in family working that Professor Leff has encountered working as a supervisor. The families themselves were treated by a range of mental health professionals, including psychiatric nurses.

What you won't get from this book is lengthy discussion of the theory, or a review of the evidence underpinning family working for people with schizophrenia and their carers. What you do get, however, is a clearly written and helpfully structured series of case descriptions grouped under a number of different themes. Broadly, these include cross-cultural issues, service users with a concurrent physical health problem, unresolved past trauma, service users with an exploitative carer and more. Each case history is organised along very clear lines, with discussion of history, presenting problems, formulation, supervisor's suggestions, follow-up, and a final commentary.

Although this is a companion volume it is very well referenced and it is interesting to note that Professor Leff acknowledges the considerable contribution made to the text by his former pupil and Thorn course leader, Catherine Gamble. Her input has paid off, and readers familiar with her co-authored text (with Geoff Brennan) on psychosocial interventions with people with serious mental health problems will find this book a useful addition to literature in this area.

An important aspect of this book is that it concentrates on family working, which has proven to be an area of psychosocial working that is elusive and difficult to implement. A simply written, practical and accessible book like this one enables the theory that underpins this work to be explored in practice in a number of different applications.

The book would appeal to a range of professionals working with people and their carers experiencing serious mental illness, including mental health nurses who are interested in or involved in this work.

John Freeman

Copyright Community Psychiatric Nurses Association Sep 2006
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