.jpg)
Key message: Emotional and practical burdens of schizophrenia on families are intertwined with feelings of frustration, anxiety, low self-esteem and helplessness occurring in the relatives of patients.
Background
- This study set out to explore the relationship between stigma, accessibility of mental health facilities and family burden through individual interviews of patients’ relatives.[Tsang et al., 2003]
- Ten interviewees from two outpatient psychiatric clinics were recruited and interviewed. Each interviewee had at least one family member receiving out-patient psychiatric services.[Tsang et al., 2003]
- A combination of unstructured and semi-structured interviewing was used to obtain interviewees’ perceptions of burden, the importance they attached to different issues and the feelings they had about the illness.[Tsang et al., 2003]
- Data analysis of the transcripts and interview notes (using the interpretive interview analysis method) showed that much of the burden on the patient’s family was related to stigma and to lack of mental health and rehabilitation services.[Tsang et al., 2003]
- Consequences of this burden included social isolation of the families, difficulties experienced by patients when trying to obtain competitive employment, and financial difficulties.[Tsang et al., 2003]
- Subjective burden resulting from social stigma included frustration, anxiety, low self-esteem and helplessness.[Tsang et al., 2003]
- The objective and subjective burdens on families were intertwined. For example, when relatives had difficulty meeting practical demands, they would most likely also have had a negative emotional response; such an emotional response would in turn affect their ability to cope with practical demands (i.e., objective and subjective burden can augment each other).[Tsang et al., 2003]
Reference:
Tsang HW, Tam PK, Chan F, Cheung WM. Sources of burdens on families of individuals with mental illness. Int J Rehabil Res 2003; 26 (2): 123–130.