Abstract
BACKGROUND Mental health is an important aspect of health, and it should be cherished, promoted, and conserved, to the maximum. World-wide, around 450 million people suffering from mental illness and contributing to important causes for years lived with disability. Caring is a fundamental issue in the treatment of a patient with mental illness. Majority of patients stay with their families and they have been the mainstay of care giving for patients with mental illness. Taking care of chronic mentally ill patients puts stress and burden on the caregivers. Caregivers use different methods of coping. This study was conducted to assess burden among caregivers of chronic mentally ill patients. METHODS This is a hospital based cross-sectional study. A consecutive sample of 150 caregivers of both inpatients and outpatients who satisfy the inclusion criteria, attending psychiatry department were recruited in the study. Caregivers were assessed with socio-demographic proforma. The burden assessment schedule (BAS) developed by SCARF measures the burden experienced by caregivers of chronic mentally ill patients. Statistical analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Categorical and quantitative variables were expressed as frequency (percentage) and mean ± SD respectively. Chi-square test was used to association between categorical variables. RESULTS Of the 150 participants, 16 % experienced mild burden, 57.3 % had moderate levels of burden and 26.7 % had severe burden levels. CONCLUSIONS This study concluded that caregivers of the mentally ill individuals do undergo a lot of burden or strain. Highest areas of burden were seen in the areas of physical and mental health, external support, and spouse related. The caregivers are in need of support and understanding. Clinicians dealing with the caregivers of patients with chronic mental illness must systematically assess the coping mechanisms of caregivers and encourage the use of adaptive and problem-focused coping mechanism to improve the caregiving and patient related outcome. Hence, there is a need to develop strategies that can help them such as providing them with a support structure as well as counseling services. KEYWORDS Caregiver, Burden, Mental Illness, Coping
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