Families Healing Together: Exploring a Family Recovery Online Course

Mental health in the United States has undergone several changes over the years. The World Health Organization website (WHO) defines mental health as: "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community" (World Health Organization, 2014). Holloway (2003) deemed the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health as the most "comprehensive study of the nation's public and private mental health delivery system since President Jimmy Carter's 1978 Mental Health Commission" in the United States (p. 20). The primary emphasis of this commission was to reduce the stigma associated with a mental health illness, and for mental health care to become "consumer-driven" (p. 20). The importance of research in mental health can be quantified by national statistics. For example, the National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI) states that one in four adults, that is approximately 61.5 million Americans, experience a mental health issue such as schizophrenia or depression (NAMI, 2013). Additionally, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that in the year 2006, the most recent report on their website, Americans spent $57.5 billion dollars in mental health services (NIMH, 2014); likewise, in the year 2005 the United States government spent $113 billion on mental health treatment (Mark, Levit, Vandivort-Warren, Buck, & Coffey, 2011). There is also the human cost of mental health illnesses such as suicide being the tenth leading cause of death in the United States (NAMI, 2013). Most recently in 2013, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) stated that 4.0% of the adults who responded to the survey had contemplated suicide while 0.6% had made attempted suicide. Furthermore, among the findings of the NSDUH are that one in five adults in the United States had experienced mental illnesses during the past year. Moreover, one in ten adolescents reported a having experienced mental illness during the past year. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 allowed millions of people access to services that were not available due to caps in their psychiatric and substance abuse insurance benefits. Likewise, the Affordable Care Act allowed uninsured people with mental health or substance abuse issues access to health care (Mark, Levit, Vandivort-Warren, Buck, & Coffey, 2011). The passing of these acts open the door for consumers to a variety of mental health treatments and resources. Purpose of the Study Currently, mental health practitioners and consumers have a need for better understanding regarding how access of psychoeducation or therapy via technology, such as the Internet, would support the expansion of these services in the field. Family members are often eager to tell their story, to describe "the saga of caring for the ill relative" (Bloch, Szmukler, Herrman, Benson, & Colussa, 1995, p. 416). Spaniol and Nelson, (2015) state, "Common reactions include, 'What is happening? I don't understand'. 'These are not ordinary behaviors of the person I have known'" (p. 762). Unfortunately, there is a lack of research focusing on online psychoeducation of families of individuals facing mental health challenges. In fact, Glynn et al. (2008) stated that "a cornerstone of the recovery movement is easy access to appropriate interventions" (p. 438), yet research focused on family support is sorely lacking in the literature. Families Healing Together is a program created with the purpose to address this critical gap in family psychoeducation research. The program consists of an eight-week course delivered online designed to support families as they strive to help their loved ones to cope with a mental health challenge. …