The family’s experience of having a mentally ill family member

Abstract

The purpose of this study was firstly to explore and describe the experience of families with a mentally ill family member and secondly to describe guidelines (based on the results obtained) for the advanced psychiatric nurse practitioner to assist families in mobilizing their resources to facilitate the promotion, maintenance and restoration of their mental health as an integral part of health. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used and Guba's model of ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research was applied. The phenomenological strategy was used to collect data from a purposive sample of respondents, consisting of five families.