Promoting family-focused approaches within adult drug services: the potential of the 'Senses Framework'

Background: Policies across countries promote family-focused engagement with adult drugs services however this is rarely offered routinely and relationships with carers are often poor. Research in mental health and older people's services suggests that improving the relationships between carers and service providers is fundamental to enhancing the quality of services. One example is the Senses Framework which assesses the extent to which services are relationship-centred and provides deeper insight into the areas that require further improvement. The aim of this paper is to establish the extent to which relationship-centred care, as defined by the Senses Framework, is expressed in the interactions between carers, services providers and policy makers in adult drug service settings.

Methods: A qualitative study, involving 8 focus groups and 32 individual interviews, was undertaken to explore carers', service providers' and policy makers' experiences and understandings of family and carer involvement with drug services in Scotland, United Kingdom.

Results: Tensions exist between carers, service providers and policy makers however there are also areas of commonality in which participants shared experiences and understandings of family and carer involvement with services. Our findings go beyond existing research which focuses largely on describing of the poor quality of relationships between carers, service providers and policy makers by providing a deeper theoretical insight into the nature of these relationships. In so doing, by focusing on the senses of belonging, continuity, security, achievement, purpose and significance, we present the possibility of resolving such tensions.

Conclusions: We think that implementing relationship-centred approaches to care, such as that in the Senses Framework, would provide a greater sense of therapeutic and strategic direction for those delivering and commissioning adult drug services in many countries.