Post-traumatic growth: Health professionals as mothers of adult children with schizophrenia.

Worldwide, mothers provide lifelong care for their ill children. Our aim in this paper was to describe the development of post-traumatic growth in an international group of mothers. Interviews with a feminist storytelling approach were conducted with 13 health professionals who were mothers of adult children with schizophrenia. Using thematic analysis, we found they had experienced a complex traumatic process complicated by gender and health care's dominant ruling relations. Over time, the women grew and became experts by experience due to their combined mothering and professional knowledges. Health professionals can play a central role and support their peers to care for family members with mental illnesses.

Health Professionals as Mothers of Adult Children With Schizophrenia.

In this qualitative narrative study, we critically reflected upon mothering experiences of health professionals with adult children with schizophrenia. Thirteen participants from Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the United States were interviewed. The thematic analysis of the interviews resulted in one overarching theme-mothering in the context of uncertainty: unbalancing and rebalancing as mothers, and three major themes: disrupted mothering, reconfigured mothering, and resolute mothering. The findings suggested participants experienced difficulties in separating their professional role from their maternal responsibilities. The mothers gained expertise by using their dual knowledge to advocate for and support their children's mental health. The mothers' dual roles had a positive impact on their relatedness to others within their professional practice. Health care organizations might benefit from the expertise of health professionals with dual roles in the development of support, care, treatment, and delivery of services for people and their family members who live with schizophrenia.

Modes of Informed Caring: Perspectives of Health Professionals Who Are Mothers of Adult Children with Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a global concern, and, this paper, describes the caring roles of health professionals who are mothers of adult children with schizophrenia. A thematic analysis of data from a doctoral study identified a blending of expertise into an informed care model. Caring roles included: constant carer; coordinator carer; watchful bystander carer; and life coach carer. Previous research has not explored these dual roles. This paper elucidates their responsive approaches and contributions to mothering and caregiving roles. Informed by a fusion of professional and mothering knowledges, their insights into mental health care have been forged by their experiences and is an untapped resource.

A four-stage framework for conducting feminist storytelling research.

BACKGROUND: Storytelling is a contemporary research method increasingly used in qualitative interpretive research. Despite its popularity, there is a paucity of information providing detailed processes for conducting storytelling research that also incorporates a feminist perspective. AIM: To provide a four-stage framework for conducting feminist storytelling research. DISCUSSION: Systematic approaches or frameworks can help researchers conducting feminist storytelling studies. The authors discuss a framework for the sequential process of conducting storytelling research that embraces the tenets of feminist standpoint theory. This four-staged framework consists of the steps taken to prepare for the collection and analysis of data, as well as to disseminate the research's findings, from etic (procedural) and emic (feminist) perspectives. The authors demonstrate the use of the framework by applying it to a study of mothering. CONCLUSION: Use of a purposeful approach to feminist storytelling research may increase its auditability and verification. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The authors anticipate that the framework can be adapted into an effective tool to support researchers interested in conducting feminist storytelling research.

'Canaries in the mine'. Parents of adult children with schizophrenia: An integrative review of the literature.

The purpose of this integrative review was to evaluate the current state of knowledge of parents who have adult children diagnosed with schizophrenia and their relationship with mental health professionals. Findings indicated that parents (primarily mothers) believed they intuitively knew when their adult children were becoming unwell and that they doggedly pursued connections with mental health care providers. Five themes were evident in the literature: trusting your instincts, feeling dismissed and devalued, making connections and making concessions, living with distress and sorrow, and becoming your own health-care provider. The implications of the findings on mental health nursing practice indicate that professional family relationships were not ideal, and that parents wanted to improve these relationships. Parents wanted health-care professionals to respond to their requests for help for both their children and for themselves, and wanted to be able to help the mental health team to help their adult children.