Nursing assistance for families of patients.

With deinstitutionalization, families have become the primary caregivers of persons with mental illness. Mental health professionals and family members must work together to prevent damage to our most valuable resource, the family. Nurses, who often provide the most continuous care for seriously mentally ill persons, are in a unique position to reach out to families and provide the help that they need as primary caregivers. Let us not fail our patients or their families.