ABSTRACT
The emergence of family-focused nursing in mental health is based on the growing recognition that health crises are sometimes critical events in the lives of families. Indeed, families coping with health crises constitute a population at risk, one that is vulnerable to a deterioration in family functioning and in mental health. Recently mental health nursing has begun to focus on the family as a critical component in correcting the problems of the individual. This innovation-family psychiatric nursing-might be seen as a natural progression in the development of psychiatric nursing as it is practised in Britain today.
