Family Friendliness of Inpatient Services for Children and Adolescents with EBD and Their Families: Observational Study of the Treatment Team Process

Family-friendly services in child mental health include those that are aligned with the needs of families and are delivered in a manner that values professionals and shows respect for family involvement, empowerment, and cultural differences. We used the Family Assessment Planning Team (FAPT) Observation Form (Inpatient Version) to assess the family friendliness of the admissions treatment team process at an inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. This instrument is divided into five sections that reflect the general process of a typical admissions treatment team meeting in inpatient child and adolescent psychiatry: Introduction, Meeting Management, Case Presentation and Discussion, Service Plans, and Tact and Technicalities. Each of the 46 items in this form represents a behavior or event that may occur during a typical children's mental health services planning meeting, and each incorporates some part of the key conceptual components of family friendliness. Use of the forms also allows for the collection of data on relevant characteristics of the meeting participants, as well as demographic information on the children and their families. We observed 35 case presentations of new admissions to a child or adolescent treatment unit in an inpatient setting. Although there were variations between the two treatment teams and among the 35 case presentations, the overall rating across all case presentations was moderately family friendly (72%) and showed marginally higher family friendliness than comparable service planning teams in the community (63%). As with community service teams, improvements in the treatment team process in child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric services are needed in order to ensure increased family friendliness in the planning of services for children with EBD.