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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Mental Health Services
Volume 4 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2024.1473235
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancements and Challenges in Mental Health Services: 2024 View all 3 articles

Care Coordination for People Living with Serious Mental Illness: understanding the caregiver's perspective

Provisionally accepted
Pamela Obegu Pamela Obegu *Kayla Nicholls Kayla Nicholls Mary Alberti Mary Alberti
  • Canadian Institute for Advancements in Mental Health, Toronto, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Family caregivers of people living with serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder, psychosis and schizophrenia, are continuously burdened with caregiving following the complexities of navigating the mental health system for their loved ones. The aim of the study was to understand the perspectives of caregivers about care coordination for people living with serious mental illness, highlighting the current landscape, what works and new directions across Canada.In this co-designed participatory qualitative research, caregivers of people living with serious mental illness, and service providers were engaged and purposively sampled across Canada.The main findings of the study revealed care coordination as a key strategy to alleviate the burden of caregivers and enhance sustainable support for them. In complement with collaborative mental health care, care coordination can improve service delivery and strengthen the mental health system.Given the severity of bipolar disorder, psychosis and schizophrenia, it is important that we prioritize care for people living with these illnesses while providing support for their caregivers who bear the brunt of the otherwise fractured mental health system. Ultimately, collaboration between people and systems is how the mental health system can be much improved, and care coordinators serve as resourceful go-betweens in this 'collaborativerse'.

    Keywords: family caregivers, Caregivers support, serious mental illness, care coordination, system navigation, Collaborative care

    Received: 30 Jul 2024; Accepted: 03 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Obegu, Nicholls and Alberti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pamela Obegu, Canadian Institute for Advancements in Mental Health, Toronto, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.