A Study of Systemic Approaches to Treating Patients with Physical Illness or Disability in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Medical problems can affect a person’s physical health, mental health, relationships, quality of life, and the people with whom the patient is connected. Although we presume mental health professionals in Turkey work with individuals coping with health issues, there has been no prior published research. This study sought to determine how mental health professionals in Turkey approached their patients currently coping with a physical illness or disability and to what degree they collaborated with other care providers. Results revealed limited education on how to work with patients and their families currently coping with illness or disability, low interdisciplinary collaboration, and low family involvement in mental healthcare related to medical issues. The authors discuss how mental healthcare providers can use the findings of this study to advance systemic training and improve the use of systemic approaches for patients and their families coping with illness and disability in Turkey.

KEYWORDS:

• Systemic approach
• medical family therapy
• illness
• disability
• practitioner attitude
• survey
• Turkey

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Susan McDaniel, Dr. Jeri Hepworth, and Dr. William J. Doherty, who generously reviewed the survey items and provided their feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution

Betül Küçükardalı Cansever is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Medical Family Therapy at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.