Relatives as a resource in the management of functional illness.

Though there is evidence that the burdens which people face when they live with someone suffering from a functional psychiatric illness have a considerable effect on both relatives and patients, very little is done in routine clinical practice to help in dealing with them. However, intervention with relatives is both practicable and effective, and sufficient is now known to indicate tentative guidelines for involving relatives in the management of patients by the psychiatric services. Strategies are suggested for dealing with problems of this sort which are faced by relatives.