A descriptive study to assess the burden among family care givers of mentally ill clients

Abstract

Recently, there have been increasing numbers of caregivers who provide care to their chronically ill family members. Care can represent a heavy burden and may put caregivers, who are mostly male under a high level of stress. Culturally, such caregivers are expected to cope and not to complain. The family constitutes an important support system in the care of the mentally ill in the community. Mental health professionals need to be aware of and address the stress borne by the family in caring for patients with mental illness as they treat the patient. The mental health nurse plays very important role in promotion of health, curative and preventive aspects. The study was under taken to" assess the burden among family care givers of mentally ill clients in Dhiraj hospital at vadodara in view to develop an information booklet." Descriptive research design was adopted in this study to assess the level of burden among family care givers of mentally ill clients. Non probability convenient sampling technique was used to select 60 family care givers admitted at Dhiraj hospital, vadodara. The result reveals Overall burden scores of family caregivers revealed that that nearly 27 (45%) of subject were belong to mild burden. Minority of caregivers 8(13.3%) belongs to moderate burden. Remaining caretakers 9(15%) belong to severe burden and 16(26.7%) belongs to no burden. Chi-square test revealed that there is significant association between the level of burden and selected socio demographic variables.