Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 1 of 1
Parents’ experience of their child's first psychiatric breakdown: “welcome to hell”
- Authors:
- SHPIGNER Elena, POSSICK Chaya, BUCHBINDER Eli
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work in Health Care, 52(6), 2013, pp.538-557.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
A retrospective study is used to examine the experiences, challenges, and difficulties faced by Israeli parents during the outbreak of psychiatric illness in their children. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 parents who participated in a psycho-educational group in a family mental health center. Several themes regarding parents’ experience of the first outbreak of their children's psychiatric illness emerge from the content analysis of the interviews: the perception of sudden onset of the illness, feelings of being mired in distress, intense pain stemming from guilt and helplessness with concomitant anger, and isolation. The themes are then discussed in light of the concept of ambiguous loss and the existential approach. The findings indicate psycho-social services in the Israeli mental health system provide only a partial response to the needs of parents during this critical period. (Edited publisher abstract)