Family Challenges Experienced by Women With Serious Mental Illness

Objective The present qualitative, grounded theory study was conducted with 20 women with serious mental illness (SMI) to better understand these familial relationships and experiences from their gender and mental health identities. Background Research suggests that women with SMI face unique challenges in their relationships with family. However, much of the literature in this area has focused on the experiences of family caregivers or the motherhood role rather than their general experiences with family. Methods Twenty women with SMI took part in this qualitative study, which utilized grounded theory methodology to develop theory from the data collected. Results Several themes were identified, including disacknowledge (family members' avoidance or denial of mental health symptoms of women with SMI), under-expectations (family members' underestimations of the abilities of women with SMI), over-expectations (family members' overestimations of the abilities of women with SMI), and role shift (changes in the family role of a woman who develops SMI). Conclusion Women with SMI face a number of challenges in the family setting that can be uniquely gendered. Implications Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.