Navigating Family Roles During a Loved One’s Residential Treatment

Different programs will offer different ways to participate and get involved with your loved one’s treatment. It is important that you participate in any way that is offered and recommended by the experts and treatment specialists. Mental illness impacts everyone in the family, which means the more people who get involved, the more effective treatment will be.

Participating in a loved one’s mental health care is useful because you are able to provide insights, background, and history that may be otherwise difficult for a therapist to access. Participation is also helpful for you as the family member. It can help you feel useful during a time when it seems as if there is nothing you can do to help. Being a part of treatment will help you and your loved one forge a new and stronger bond that benefits both of you.

Many residential treatment programs involve the family through a program known as psychoeducation. Family psychoeducation is not the same as therapy. In family therapy, it is the family at the focus of the program. Psychoeducation places the mental illness at the center and teaches the family about it and how to communicate with and support the family member who is the patient. These programs provide information, resources, guidance on managing mental illness, and emotional and social support.

Several studies have confirmed that family psychoeducation helps support people in treatment for mental illness. Researchers have found that when patients’ families participate, they have improved symptoms, fewer relapses, and overall better family functioning and outcomes. This kind of family involvement has been found to be particularly useful in the management of severe conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Also useful for your loved one in residential treatment is participation by the family in actual therapy. Family therapy sessions for the family are intended to improve relationships and communication skills and assist in resolving conflicts. This helps the family function better overall, but it also supports the person in treatment and afterward in recovery.

Family therapy is an important way for everyone to be able to heal, not just the patient in treatment. Mental illness and substance use disorder affect everyone in the family, and therapy together is a crucial source of healing that helps individuals move on and form stronger bonds with the rest of their family.

Many programs offer support groups for families of those in treatment. Even if the residential facility in which your loved one is receiving care does not have these groups, you can participate by finding one in your area or online. The benefits of support groups are that they allow you to share your experiences, learn from others, and get and provide emotional and social support to and from people in a similar situation.

How this helps your loved one is that it keeps you healthy and in a better position to provide ongoing support. This is a difficult time, not just for your loved one but for everyone who cares about them. For your own sake and theirs, it is important to address your own mental health needs. Families have trauma too and as clinicians, we are very aware that the family is in need of our support and clinical expertise from the moment a loved one enters treatment and throughout their entire recovery process.

There may come a time when the family member you have in treatment tells you they want to leave early. This is common, and they may have multiple reasons or excuses: they feel they have gotten everything they need from the program; the stress of being in a residential facility is too much; or they think they would do better at home.

It is essential that family stay strong in the face of these requests to get out early and come home. The best outcomes occur when a patient stays in treatment for the duration of a program. It will be very tempting to give in, especially if this is your adult child struggling. You must support, empower, and encourage your loved one to stick with it and tough it out for a successful recovery.