ABSTRACT
In 1984, a group of people from several different disciplines working within the Old Age Psychiatry Service in Central Manchester established a clinic that offered a family therapy service to older people with mental health problems and their families. Over the years of its operation the Central Manchester Family Therapy Team (at Carisbrooke) developed substantial knowledge and experience in working with this particular group of people, almost half of whom had a diagnosis of a dementing illness. The work of the team with the families of older people with dementia has been described elsewhere (Benbow et al, 1993). The creation of the Younger Persons Dementia Service within the larger service five years ago, coupled with the development nurse (Michelle Murray) becoming a member of the family team, led to the conclusion that some of the younger users and their families might also benefit from the particular kind of intervention the team offered. Although thus far the family team has only worked with a relatively small number of families who have a younger member with dementia, its intervention has already shown itself to be of benefit and it is planned that this new aspect of the team’s work will continue. This chapter will describe the general approach of the family team to family therapy and indicate the nature of family work it has already carried out with older people with mental health problems and younger individuals with dementia. It will briefly describe the operation of its clinic and will illustrate that work with a case example of one of the families referred from the Younger Persons Dementia Service.
