Assessment of family burden and it's co-relates among the caregivers of mentally ill patients in a OPD of selected mental hospital, West Bengal

Abstract

Background and Purpose: History of mental health showed that mentally ill have been tremendously stigmatized in most parts of the world. It is currently being recognized that all mental illness is characterized by some disruption of normal social and interpersonal relationship. The family forms one of the most important parts of the multidimensional care system for the mentally ill, of course many patient with serious mental illness becomes detached from the families. But even when the families want to participate in the patient care, they often feel excluded. With the trend towards deinstitutionalization, family are often primary care givers, confidentially laws designed to protect the privacy of consumers, or often used as barriers to provide families with basic information for family care giving. This study was conducted to assess the family burden and to find out the associated factors of family burden among caregivers of mentally ill patients in a OPD of selected mental hospital, Kolkata.Methods: Hundred family members were selected by purposive sampling technique. A quantitative non-experimental survey approach is selected for the present study to assess family burden and correlates among the caregivers of mentally ill patients. The family burden was assessed by the tool Interview Schedule on Caregiver Burden Scale by Zarit et al. 1980 Gerontologist,20(6),649-55 through interviewing and the co-relates are find out by using the tools Interview Schedule on demographic characteristics and associated factors. Associated factors refers to perceived stress, daily living activities, faced financial problem etc.Results: Out of hundred family members, 56% family members had moderate family burden, 31% had mild family burden, 8% had severe family burden and 5% had no or minimal burden. It is also assessed that there is a significant association of family burden with financial problem faced to bear treatment expenses, which was statistically significant as evident from the chi square value i.e 14.117 and difficulty faced in self routine adjustment, the chi square value is 6.338. Out of hundred family members 90% had moderate stress and only 3% family members had low stress. And there is positive co-relation between family burden and perceived stress of caregivers which was statistically significant as evident from ‘r’ value (0.362). And there is negative co-relation between family burden and independence in activities of daily living which was statistically significant as evident from ‘r’ value (-0.29,-0.39,-0.34).Conclusion: Our study was conducted to assess the family burden and identity its co-relates among caregivers of mentally ill patients. The following conclusions are based on the study findings of the study. In this study, 56% caregivers had moderate family burden, 31% had mild family burden, 8% caregivers had severe family burden and 5% caregivers face no or minimal family burden. The study could be implicated in different areas of nursing practice and nursing research with recommendation. This study can be done in large sample.