P L A I N L A N G U A G E S U M M A R YBrief family intervention for schizophreniaSchizophrenia is a serious mental illness that affe cts a per sons thoughts, perce ptions and emotions. Research has found that the chanceof someone with mental illness having a relapse is greater when the ir family is over-involved, hostile, critical and dissatisfied - a conceptknown as ’expressed emotions’. Family interventions have been shown to improve outcomes for people with schizophrenia and are nowwidely used. They are designed to pr omote positive family environments and reduce levels of expressed emotions within families aswell as providing insight into the signs and symptoms of mental illness, so family members can anticipate and help stop relapse. Therehave been various psychosocial programmes designed over th e years, including: counselling groups f or family members; family th erapy;educational groups for relatives; group ther apy for family members; and educational le ctures for family members. These are deliveredby skilled, trained mental he alth professionals, who work with the families every two weeks or so, sometimes across considerable timeperiods, such as one year.Brief family intervention is a form of family intervention where a mental health professional educates the person with sch izophreniaand their family members about the illness over a limited number of sessions.This review investigates the effects of brief family intervention for people with schizophrenia, compared to standard or usual care. Asearch of the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group’s trial register was carried out in July 2012. Four randomised studies, with a total of 163participants were included. Results were limited, so it is not clear if brief family intervention reduces admission to hospital, decreasespeople using health services and reduces relapse for people with schizophrenia. The review found some evidence that brief familyintervention might increase th e understanding of family me mbers about me ntal illness. However, all main findings are not strong andbased on low or very low quality evidence. Despite this, the authors of the review suggest that brief f amily inter vention should notbe completely dismissed, as it is in a current state of demand and there are usually resources or local services available for people withmental health problems and their families to participate in as a part of recovery. The authors al so suggest that brief family interventioncould be improved to be more effective but this would depend on larger and better studies of brief family intervention being carriedout, which would help guide good practice and lead to better outcomes for people with schizophrenia.This plain language summary has been written by a consumer, Ben Gray, from RETHINK