Effects of a future care planning workshop for aging parents of the mentally ill

This article presents a future care planning workshop for aging parents of adult children with severe mental illness and also presents workshop effects including parents' knowledge gains of future planning, psychological well-being, and future care planning behavior. The evaluation study had a single-group, pretest, posttest, and 6-month follow-up design. All 14 parents showed increased knowledge and confidence about future care planning at the posttest and the follow-up, and additional future care planning behavior was reported in the follow-up period. The findings support the importance of providing specific information and resources about future care planning to these aging parents. Practitioners are encouraged to incorporate future care planning issues in their practice and to support families on this difficult yet essential task.