Implementation of Early Psychosis Intervention Program ... - EENet

70Table 29: Family education and support: Implementation by program typeSurvey Question Response All Large Small Hospital CommunitySitesQ123: How often able to % sites implementing ‘most 71 80 57 76 64implement this element of the time’Large: catchment area population > 100,000 population (31 program sites)Small: catchment area population < 100,000 population (21 program sites)Hospital: hospital is parent organization (30 program sites)Community: community agency is parent organization (22 program sites).Approaches used by programs for supporting families (Table 30):o About half (47%) of sites reported having a designated family support worker, with othersreporting a distributed role (26%) or other arrangement (27%). Small programs were lesslikely to have a dedicated worker (33%). Other approaches included designating a partialclinical staff role for supporting families, or referring families to other community services.o Few reported conflict of interest concerns when the same staff serves both clients and theirfamilies.o Strategies to connect family members with other families included: referring familymembers to family groups (92%); connecting families through retreats, conferences andworkshops (73%); linking with another individual family (47%); telemedicine (16%);encouraging participation in EPI program advisory committees (20%); E-mail and chatrooms (10%).o Use was similar across program types.Table 30: Strategies to connect families with other families (Q 126)Strategies% usedReferral to family groups 92Retreats, conferences, workshops, etc. 73Link with another individual family 47Participation in EPI program advisory committee 20Telemedicine (e.g., OTN) 16E-mail/chat room 10Main challenges to family support noted by programs:o Almost three quarters of program sites were challenged to find time to connect with familiesthat are difficult to reach. Sites also reported distance (54%) and time to organize educationand peer support activities (42%) as main challenges to working with families.o Other challenges include, limited staffing resources; availability of family members; familyreadiness and limited resources within family to support client (e.g., stigma, denial and lowfunctioningfamily); limited engagement between family and client and client not wantingfamily involvement.