In the UK in 2007 it was calculated that relatives were saving the NHS more than £87 billion pounds a year (Buckner & Yeandle, 2007) by providing unpaid care. The 2001 census revealed that there were 6 million unpaid carers in the UK, one quarter care for someone with a mental health problem, equal to approximately £21.75 billion pounds. Relatives often take on this role with very little or no knowledge of the illness and how to manage it. We therefore need to acknowledge the importance of relatives, the problems they face and support them throughout their journey.

There were two main aims to this PhD research; 1. To explore and understand the journey for relatives caring or supporting an individual who has experienced or is experiencing psychosis and 2. To understand how to support relatives make use of resources to facilitate their journey.

In order to achieve these aims a series of studies were conducted by reviewing past literature and using focus group, interview, and self-report methods. The participants were relatives of people who have had or were experiencing psychosis recruited specifically for this research, and relatives of people who were currently experiencing a first episode of psychosis from the REACT study.