Collaborative Family Care
Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatry, SC in Chicago, IL

Here at Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatry, SC, we recognize that mental health often affects the entire family. For every stage of life – from young children to adolescents to young adults beginning their lives to mature adults and seniors – psychiatric evaluation and treatment can help address whole-family mental health concerns. Our collaborative approach can potentially involve extended family members, loved ones who are not related and caregivers when appropriate, ensuring coordinated care and better outcomes.

There are no hard and fast rules for what Collaborative Family Care should look like. How the treatment plan is designed, what constitutes a family or which family members are in treatment can vary. Some family members may be in active treatment, while others play a more supportive role. Or it can be designed with multiple family members in coordinated treatment at the same time.

To explore whether Collaborative Family Care may be the right approach for psychiatric treatment, contact us online or call ☎ (773) 594-9944 to schedule an initial consultation.

What is Collaborative Family Care?

In the field of psychiatry, Collaborative Family Care adopts a family-centered model aimed at treating the entire family system rather than focusing on a single individual family member with mental health condition. This integrated, collaborative approach involves all family members as a unit in sharing information and developing and implementing treatment plans.

Psychiatrists who provide Collaborative Family Care focus on psychological, biological and environmental aspects of family mental health, as well as medical, social and cognitive issues in each member of the family unit. Treatment also takes into consideration work and educational factors, together with family history and genetic factors.

The goal of Collaborative Family Care is to improve the mental and social functioning of the whole family unit, provide support and enhance treatment adherence for patient(s) seeking treatment, all to achieve improved, long-term outcomes for everyone involved.

What Does Collaborative Family Care Involve?

As a medical specialty focused on diagnosing, treating, and preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in families, psychiatrists in this field are medical doctors who can assess mental and physical symptoms, prescribe medication, and recommend other treatments like psychotherapy and lifestyle changes in order to help both adults and children in the family manage multiple mental health conditions.

The field of psychiatry is designed to address a broad array of mental health conditions, as well as a wide range of patient populations – both males and females, as well as adults, adolescents and children. Psychiatrists are skilled in preventing, diagnosing and treating mental health conditions in all these various populations using both psychotherapy and medication. As a branch of medicine, psychiatry focuses on specific biopsychosocial factors that impact developmental, mental and emotional disorders throughout the life cycle.

No matter who is undergoing treatment or which condition is being addressed – whether its substance use disorder, depression, anxiety, sibling rivalry or ADHD – all Collaborative Family Care treatment models generally involve the following steps as a process:

Evaluation: The initial Collaborative Family Care evaluation is the very first step taken. This initial evaluation will help to diagnose the specific mental health disorder(s) affecting the individual(s) in treatment.

Diagnosis: Diagnos(es) may change over time, as children, adolescents and adults all mature into later life. It also may change as more in-depth treatment reveals additional diagnoses. Improvement in the condition(s) is another reason diagnoses may be adjusted.

Treatment Plan: Developing a treatment plan is the next step. Based on the initial evaluation(s) of family members involved, the most effective treatment options can be identified. Psychiatric treatment may involve different types of interventions, using medication and therapy. Oftentimes, lifestyle modifications may be helpful.

What to expect from Collaborative Family Care Evaluations

Every psychiatric evaluation is based on the needs of the individual being evaluated. An assessment is typically based on the thought patterns and behaviors the individual is exhibiting, as well as other specific factors at issue. Adult psychiatrists seek to identify and address behaviors and thinking patterns and how they are affecting an individual and family, specifically with regard to:

• Behaviors
• Mood, mental and emotional state
• Relationships with others (e.g., friends, schoolmates, neighbors, family members, etc.)
• Work or academic life
• Diagnosed and undiagnosed medical conditions
• Involvement in hobbies, volunteer activities or sports and outdoor activities
• Overall physical health

Understanding family dynamics over time is a critical piece of this type of psychiatric treatment. A comprehensive evaluation is typically required for each member of the family that is in treatment to diagnose behavioral, psychological or developmental disorders in adults, adolescents and children. The most common elements in most psychiatric assessments include the following:

Physical Exams and Medical Testing: One aspect that separates psychiatry from psychology involves a focus on the physiological aspects of mental health. Psychiatrists may conduct a physical exam to rule out underlying medical conditions that could be contributing to mental or emotional symptoms in any member of the family.

Medical tests - ranging from blood work or urine analysis to MRIs and CT scans – may be used to assess physical and mental conditions and any connections between the two. It’s also important to recognize that both medical conditions and mental health conditions often run in families and can be exhibited across generations.

Interviews: Psychiatrists will generally require a detailed interview to collect information about the immediate concerns, as well as medical history, family history, and any prior diagnoses or treatments for each member of the family involved in treatment.

Evaluative Tools: A variety of questionnaires or evaluative testing may be used to further assess the psychiatric condition of the family member(s) seeking treatment.

Who initiates Evaluation and Treatment for a Family Unit?

Much like Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Collaborative Family Care may have the same level of involvement from parents, teachers or other professionals, so self-referral or professional referrals for treatment are both avenues to care. Once the psychiatric evaluation(s) are complete, initial diagnos(es) are made. The primary psychiatric provider will be able to address questions as long-term and short-term treatment goals are developed for individual(s) in treatment and the family unit as a whole.

A Note about Crisis Stabilization: In acute mental health crises, emergency evaluations are usually conducted to assess the immediate risk to the individual(s) in treatment and others, and to determine the appropriate level and type of psychiatric care needed to stabilize the crisis and support the entire family unit.

Request Your Consultation

If a family – or specific family member(s) – need psychiatric care, the first step is the initial psychiatric evaluation and diagnosis for each family member, which allows us to develop a family treatment plan. Call ☎ (773) 594-9944 or contact us online for an initial Collaborative Family Care consultation.

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