Stigma and Feeling of Burden Among Caregivers of Individuals with Mental Illness

Abstract

The prevalence of mental health disorders is 18.7% in adults and 12.6% in children in Bangladesh, where access to care is limited. Stigmatization and feelings of burden among caregivers (caregiver burden) are barriers to seeking and accessing healthcare services in individuals with mental illness (PWMI). The implementation of targeted mental health services and interventions can reduce the nationwide health and economic burden. To ensure proper implementation, the perception of stigma towards mental illness influenced by the feeling of burden among caregivers of PWMI was explored in this study. Ten mental health service facilities were selected for this mixed methods study from January 2019 to June 2019. Quantitative data were collected from 176 caregivers and qualitative data were collected from 20 caregivers of PWMI. Quantitative data were analyzed as per the data analysis plan by the developer of the data collection tool (The Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale questionnaire) using SPSS version 25. Among the quantitative and qualitative respondents, 55.1% and 80.0% were male, respectively. The overall mean score of stigma towards mental illness influenced by caregiver burden was 4.8 (±1.2). Qualitative data showed that most caregivers felt uncomfortable and were cautious about what they said about PWMI. The treatment-seeking behavior of PWMI greatly depends on the caregivers’ stigma. Our findings provide opportunities for designing and implementing targeted interventions.