Psych CASC / OSCE · Public and community psychiatry — carers and family-inclusive practice
Explain family-inclusive care and negotiate confidentiality with parents — CASC communication station
MRCPsych/FRANZCP-style communication station: explain family-inclusive practice, reframe EE without blame, negotiate confidentiality, outline FPE, and support carer distress.
On this page
Study tools
Target exams
FRANZCPMRCPsychABPNMD-DNB
Prompt
Parents of a 23-year-old man recently diagnosed with schizophrenia ask to meet the psychiatry registrar. They feel blamed by staff comments about 'high EE,' want full access to all session notes, and are exhausted. The patient has consented to care-planning involvement but not to sharing private therapy content.
Station brief
Format. Communication station, approximately 7–10 minutes. You are the psychiatry registrar meeting the parents. [4]
Candidate instructions. Build alliance; reframe expressed emotion without blame; explain what family psychoeducation involves and why it helps; negotiate what can and cannot be shared given their son's consent; assess parental distress and offer support; agree next steps. [1][2][4][5]
References5ShowHide
- [1]Butzlaff RL, Hooley JM Expressed emotion and psychiatric relapse: a meta-analysis Arch Gen Psychiatry, 1998.PMID 9633674
- [2]McFarlane WR, Dixon L, Lukens E, Lucksted A Family psychoeducation and schizophrenia: a review of the literature J Marital Fam Ther, 2003.PMID 12728780
- [3]Pharoah F, Mari J, Rathbone J, Wong W Family intervention for schizophrenia Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2010.PMID 21154340
- [4]Dixon L, McFarlane WR, Lefley H, et al. Evidence-based practices for services to families of people with psychiatric disabilities Psychiatr Serv, 2001.PMID 11433107
- [5]Yesufu-Udechuku A, Harrison B, Mayo-Wilson E, et al. Interventions to improve the experience of caring for people with severe mental illness: systematic review and meta-analysis Br J Psychiatry, 2015.PMID 25833867