title: Parents' perceptions of their child's emotional illness and psychiatric treatment needs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to describe how parents define their child's emotional illness and psychiatric treatment needs.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consisted of 19 parents and one grandparent (N = 20) who had recently admitted their child to a short-term psychiatric unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative methods, utilizing a semistructured interview. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Substantive codes were combined to derive the key concepts and themes in the interviews.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings of this study center on themes related to parents' efforts to control the current behavioral crisis, treatment acceptability, family needs, explanatory formulations, and securing the child's future.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Implications for treatment include how nurses might tap into parents' perceptions to facilitate parent' professional communication.
authors.affiliation: Children's Inpatient Unit, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Delaney
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Engels-Scianna
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires