A model to promote family involvement in caring for mental health care users in long-term Mental Health Institutions in Limpopo province

Abstract

A model to promote family involvement in caring for MHCUs in long-term mental health institutions was developed through four phases in accordance with the objectives of the study, namely, a description of factors contributing to insufficient effort in caring for MHCUs and concept analysis of family involvement in caring for MHCUs, model development, and an evaluation phase. The identified concepts were classified and conceptualised using the six elements of the practice theory, as outlined by Dickoff, James and Wiedenbach’s (1968) survey list cited by Madela-Mntla (1999); Tlakula (1999) in Mapulte 2010. These elements are context, agent, recipient, dynamic, procedure and terminus. The collaborative statements subsequent after conceptualization of each of the six notions were concluded through the progression of logical analysis and synthesis. The development of the family involvement in caring for MHCUs model contained six components, namely, goals, concepts, relationships, context, structures and procedures assumptions, as outlined in Chinn and Kramer’s (1999;2008; Walker and Avant (2013). The model was evaluated in accordance with Chinn and Kramer’s (2014 cited in Aluko, 2016) method and refined by experts in mental health practice and model generation. Justification of the original contribution of the study to the body of knowledge was discussed. Limitations were documented and recommendations made with reference to the presented research, guidelines to operationalize the model and future research.

Keywords: family involvement model, mental health patients’ treatment, management of psychiatric patients, mental health promotion, psychiatric practice.