Randi Martinsen, Anne Signe Landheim, Berit Arnesveen Bronken
{"title":"A turning point after FACT: a qualitative study of family members' experiences and follow-up provided by flexible assertive community treatment.","authors":"Randi Martinsen, Anne Signe Landheim, Berit Arnesveen Bronken","doi":"10.1186/s12913-025-13485-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Service users living with severe mental illness are often in need of treatment from different health care professionals. Their family members play an important but underreported role in their treatment and care. Following the implementation of the flexible assertive community treatment (FACT) model in Norway since 2013, FACT teams have been evaluated from different perspectives. The overall aim of this study was to explore how family members of people living with SMI experience their situation and the follow-up provided by FACT teams.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Forty-one family members aged 31 to 78 years took part in nine focus groups representing seven FACT teams from both rural and urban areas in Norway. Most of the participants had parental roles. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results revealed the following two main themes and five sub-themes: (1) An all-consuming and demanding role (A life of love, care and despair and A life affecting health and well-being), and (2) A turning point after FACT (From a patchwork to more integration and continuity, Family involvement as a vital part of care and Availability of support outside regular opening hours).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Being family members of service users with SMI are experienced as an all-consuming and demanding role. The family members experience the FACT team as an important support in their day-to-day life. However, they wish to receive more support and inclusion in the treatment than they currently do. Further strengthening the involvement and collaboration between the family members and the FACT teams is recommended. Psychoeducational interventions arranged by the FACT team could support family members' situations. To share their stories with professionals and/or peers would further contribute to their well-being. Extending the opening hours of FACT is recommended as it might mitigate family members' everyday challenges and improve their subjective well-being.</p>","PeriodicalId":9012,"journal":{"name":"BMC Health Services Research","volume":"25 1","pages":"1254"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12482409/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Health Services Research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-025-13485-z","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Service users living with severe mental illness are often in need of treatment from different health care professionals. Their family members play an important but underreported role in their treatment and care. Following the implementation of the flexible assertive community treatment (FACT) model in Norway since 2013, FACT teams have been evaluated from different perspectives. The overall aim of this study was to explore how family members of people living with SMI experience their situation and the follow-up provided by FACT teams.
Methods: Forty-one family members aged 31 to 78 years took part in nine focus groups representing seven FACT teams from both rural and urban areas in Norway. Most of the participants had parental roles. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis.
Results: The results revealed the following two main themes and five sub-themes: (1) An all-consuming and demanding role (A life of love, care and despair and A life affecting health and well-being), and (2) A turning point after FACT (From a patchwork to more integration and continuity, Family involvement as a vital part of care and Availability of support outside regular opening hours).
Conclusions: Being family members of service users with SMI are experienced as an all-consuming and demanding role. The family members experience the FACT team as an important support in their day-to-day life. However, they wish to receive more support and inclusion in the treatment than they currently do. Further strengthening the involvement and collaboration between the family members and the FACT teams is recommended. Psychoeducational interventions arranged by the FACT team could support family members' situations. To share their stories with professionals and/or peers would further contribute to their well-being. Extending the opening hours of FACT is recommended as it might mitigate family members' everyday challenges and improve their subjective well-being.
期刊介绍：
BMC Health Services Research is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of health services research, including delivery of care, management of health services, assessment of healthcare needs, measurement of outcomes, allocation of healthcare resources, evaluation of different health markets and health services organizations, international comparative analysis of health systems, health economics and the impact of health policies and regulations.
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