Experience of psychological distress and the level of resilience by adolescent as care giver in palliative care: A qualitative analysis in the context of hospitalisation

Abstract

Summary Objective Most health providers are still focusing on the patients while caregivers are dying within them. This has made most of the caregivers to suffer from psychological problem such as distress. Distress without support will lead to mental illness in the future. The present work had an objective to analyse the factors of psychological distress in caregivers of hospitalized patients in palliative care while evaluating the level of resilience associated with it. Participants/Method The study was carried out on a sample of 09 adolescents. It was a qualitative and descriptive study with a diagnostic dimension conducted over a period of 10 months from June 2019 to April 2020. The evaluation was done by the use of an interview guide, three diagnostic scales K 6-Distress Scale, post-traumatic stress checklist scale, and Connor Davidson resilience scale questionnaires for participants to respond and also for a face-to-face interview. Result The analysis of the clinical interview allows the conception of caregivers sympathy toward the patients, the absence of support from the family members, and the experience of stressful events, initially was the origin of their distress. Most of the caregivers’ distress was associated proportionally to resilience due to the support from family members while those without support from the family members was vice visa. Conclusion The palliative caregiver had a source of resilience that is activated within them to deal with their distress. However, the health staff must give this caregiver a little more attention alongside with the patients in order to improve the level of resilience activation.