Ringar på vattnet - en kvalitativ undersökning av åtta anhörigas erfarenheter och upplevelser av vården på psykiatriska avdelningar på Landspitalinn - Universitetssjukhus på Island

“Ripples in the water” is a qualitative research of eight family members´ experiences of the service they received from the psychiatric departments in the University Hospital in Iceland when one of the family became mentally ill. The eight participants in the research came from families, who had the total of six mentally ill patients. I conducted a total of six interviews with these participants, and the datamaterial from these interviews was divided into following five catagories: 1. The participants’ reactions when a family member became mentally ill and the influence of the mental disease. 2. The participants´ meeting with the psychiatric departments. 3. Wishes and expectations. 4. Need for help and support. 5. The participants´ suggestions what would improve the circumstances of families of mentally ill patients. I used the “Symbolic Interactionism” as the theoretical base of my research and interpreted and defined my results according to that theory. There is a question of non-symbolic interaction when there is no interpretation or definition of people´s actions and symbolic interaction where there is interpretation and definition of people´s actions and reflections over their feelings and well-being. The conclusion of my research is that families of mentally ill patients are people in crisis, but they are not defined or interpreted as such by the staff in the psychiatric service and are therefore not getting adequate care and service. Furthermore when there is non-symbolic interaction in meetings between family members and the staff in the psychiatric service, family members will experience ineffective communication, little information, futile search for service, unsatisfied expectations and no joint action. The result is an inadequate and coincidental service. However, when there is symbolic interaktion in family members´ meeting with the staff in the psychiatric service, it can lead to an effectiv communication, more information, fulfillment of expectations and the frequency of joint action, resulting in appropiate and non coincidental service. Mental diseases can be likened to cascading ripples in the water, because they have such a great influence on the patients, their families and friends. The same can also be said about good and adequate service and care, because it has such a substantial and lasting effect on not only the patients, but also their families and friends