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Abstract
Family Group Conferencing (FGC) is a decision-making model where clients with their social network formulate their own plan. There is little experience with FGC in mental health care. We studied the outcomes of 41 conferences in a public mental health setting in the north of the Netherlands. We interviewed 312 respondents out of a total of 473 conference participants. In 33 cases, it was possible to obtain scores from 245 respondents on scales ranging from 0 to 10 about the situation prior and after the conference on three outcome measures, namely the quality of: (1) social support, (2) resilience and (3) living conditions. In the 33 cases, t-tests and multilevel analyses indicate on all of the three outcomes measures significant positive changes after the conferences. On average, the scores on the quality of social support (5.04–6.73), resilience (4.09–6.32) and the living conditions (3.73–6.64) had been increased since the conferences were organised. The results are modest but remarkable. That the impact of FGC is not more substantial can be explained. The clients referred to a conference in this particular study, mostly had a limited network and few recourses from whom little support could be expected.
De Eigen Kracht-conferentie (EK-c) is een besluitvormingsmodel waarin hulpvragers samen met hun sociale netwerk een toekomstplan maken. Er is weinig ervaring met EK-c's in de openbare geestelijke gezondheidszorg (OGGz). Gedurende twee jaar zijn 41 EK-c's in de OGGz-netwerken van de provincie Groningen onderzocht. Hiertoe werden 312 respondenten geïnterviewd uit een totaal aantal van 473 EK-c deelnemers. In 33 van de 41 cases was het mogelijk om scores lopend van 0–10 te verkrijgen over telkens de situatie voorafgaand als na de EK-c met betrekking tot drie uitkomstvariabelen: 1) sociale steun; 2) eigen kracht; 3) leefsituatie. T-toetsen en multilevel-analyses wijzen op positieve veranderingen in de drie uitkomstvariabelen. De ervaren kwaliteit van de sociale steun (van 5,04 naar 6,73) en de hoeveelheid eigen kracht (van 4,09 naar 6,32) namen toe, evenals dat de kwaliteit van de leefsituatie (van 3,73 naar 6,64) verbeterde. De cliënten voor wie een EK-c werd georganiseerd hadden veelal een beperkt netwerk en daardoor weinig hulpbronnen waar een beroep op kon worden gedaan. De bescheiden vooruitgang die door de EK-c's met deze doelgroep werd geboekt is dan ook opmerkelijk.
Acknowledgment
The authors want to thank MSc. Femke Ysbrandy and Dr. Christian Steglich from the University of Groningen for their help during an early stage of the quantitative impact analysis of the research project ‘Family Group Conferencing in public mental health care’. GdJ, GS and TA were responsible for the study conception and design; GdJ and EM performed the data collection and analysis; GdJ, GS, CLM and TA were responsible for the drafting of the manuscript; GS and TA supervised the study. GS obtained funding and provided administrative, technical or material support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Gideon de Jong recently defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Family Group Conferencing in public mental health care: A responsive Evaluation’ at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Nursing and a Master's in Educational Sciences. Over the past decade he has been working as a nurse in different psychiatric settings and since 2008 he is combining this job with a position as an university teacher and researcher.
Over the past decade, Gert Schout has been involved in the research and development of (public) mental health care in the Netherlands. He has written books and published in various journals on topics dealing with care for socially vulnerable people. In 2007 he received a PhD degree at the University of Groningen on a study into the interplay between care avoidance and care paralysis. His recent articles and research focus on the application of Family Group Conferencing in (public) mental health.
Ellen Meijer is a PhD candidate at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's in Sociology. Since 2013 she has been researching Family Group Conferencing in mental health care.
Cornelis L. Mulder is a psychiatrist and professor of public mental health. He is programme leader of the Epidemiological and Social Research institute at Erasmus University Medical Centre, department of psychiatry, psychiatrist and teacher at BavoEuropoort/Parnassia psychiatric institute. He is involved in research projects concerning help seeking behaviour, motivation and compliance, emergency psychiatry, victimisation, assertive outreach, compliance, and coercion and regularly publishes (inter)national scientific articles and books on these matters.
Tineke Abma is professor Participation & Diversity and research director at the department of Medical Humanities, and senior researcher at the EMGO+ research institute, VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Her research projects are embedded within the Quality of Care programme of EMGO+. Formerly she was appointed as associate professor at the department of Health, Ethics & Society at Maastricht University and research institute Caphri, and assistant professor at the institute for Healthcare Policy & Management of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.