Abstract
There is a wealth of literature exploring the experiences of family caregivers of people with severe mental illness (SMI) in western countries, however, this topic has been neglected in the Middle East, despite families being the main source of caregiving in this context. The purpose of this review was to conduct a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis to explore the experiences of family caregivers living in countries in the Middle East caring for a relative with severe mental illness. A systematic review and meta-synthesis were conducted, to comprehensively gain a thorough and detailed overview of what is known about family caregivers' experiences from published qualitative research in the Middle East geographical area from inception to May 2021. The review protocol was pre-registered with PROSPERO (Ref: CRD42020165519). The review identified twelve qualitative studies that explored caregivers' experiences of caring for relatives with SMI in Middle East countries. Family caregivers' experiences were captured under seven overarching themes. The participants across all studies reported negative consequences of providing care, increased burden and emotional distress. Many experienced issues with family/marital relationships and stigmatizing attitudes and behaviours from their communities. Caregivers expressed the need for increased support which was perceived to have a critical role in improving family caregivers' experiences. The meta-synthesis revealed many challenges and issues that affect caregivers of people with SMI in the Middle East. Family caregivers experienced distress and burden, and reported significant impact on their psychological well-being. Their experiences highlight the urgent need to provide more support for family caregivers in Middle East countries.
Highlights
Severe mental illnesses (SMI) are mental, behavioural, mental, behavioural and emotional disorders that cause substantial functional impairment that interferes with or limits daily activities and include disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder [1]
There is a wealth of literature exploring the experiences of family caregivers of people with severe mental illness (SMI) in western countries, this topic has been neglected in the Middle East, despite families being the main source of caregiving in this context
Recent studies have reported that mental illness is a major global issue, with more than 45 million people worldwide affected with bipolar disorder, and around 20 million people worldwide affected with schizophrenia [3]
Summary
Severe mental illnesses (SMI) are mental, behavioural, mental, behavioural and emotional disorders that cause substantial functional impairment that interferes with or limits daily activities and include disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder [1]. According to a recent review conducted on violence by people with serious mental illness toward family caregivers, Labrum (2020), found that family caregivers often experienced violence when they are at home alone with their relative with serious mental illness, which can cause a significant negative impact on the wellbeing of caregivers [14] Most of this large body of research has, so far been conducted in Western countries. There is a wealth of literature exploring the experiences of family caregivers of people with severe mental illness (SMI) in western countries, this topic has been neglected in the Middle East, despite families being the main source of caregiving in this context. The purpose of this review was to conduct a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis to explore the experiences of family caregivers living in countries in the Middle East caring for a relative with severe mental illness
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