I have forgotten everything in
life, that how to take care of myself, how to interact with people and I really
cannot remember what are the leisure activities?
Even I did not get time to offer my prayers. I don’t know what is happening
around me? Yes I do remember the time when I use to share my feelings to my
friends, when I use to attend different ceremonies, it was that time when my son
was in good health. Personally, I often feel very sad, when I think of my son
who has schizophrenia a chronic mental illness that has made him isolated from
society, no interest in any activity, unable to care for himself. Since he has
been shown the signs of this illness, he is totally dependent on me. Now I think
God have created me to care him and ignore rest of the world.
These were words and feelings of a mother Anisa 53 year old lady who is
responsible to care of her 21 year old son.
This is not only one scenario, there are many more people who are facing same
issue in our society.
This scenario raised thought provoking questions in my mind that how to find
balance between care giving and other activities? How family members take care
of themselves?
Family caregivers are often the primary source of social and emotional support
for mentally ill people, and they receive significant amount of support from
family caregivers in managing their illness. Caregivers are defined as those
providing unpaid assistance, such as personal care, bathing, dressing, feeding,
transportation to the doctors' appointments, help with medications and other
treatments National Alliance for Caregiving (2009). Caregivers may be a spouse,
sibling, parent, friend, or relative. They have a vital role in assisting in the
most difficult moments of a loved one's life. Caregivers are those who provide
services to an Individual in need, typically one suffering from chronic illness
or disability, which result in loss of independence and functioning. As in
mental illnesses most of these individuals are dependent on their family
members. Recent studies estimates that between one-third and two-thirds of
persons with long-term psychiatric disabilities currently reside with family
members. An estimated 44 million Americans age 18 and older provide unpaid
assistance and support to older people and adults with disabilities (National
Alliance for Caregiving 2009).
In this article I will discuss the effects of caregiving on family caregivers
and few recommendations for family caregivers. The troubles facing by family
caregivers with severe mental illness impact on all aspect of the caregiver's
life, including physical, social, emotional, and psychological health.
Chronic mental illnesses affect and involve the entire family and not just the
individual who is ill as these clients are unable to carry out the tasks of
daily living. Family caregivers perform multiple tasks including caring to their
sick family members. The caregivers do not take care about their health even
they ignore their physical and emotional needs. Moreover they are so much
involved in caregiving that they forgot to take care about their physical and
emotional needs, and ultimately they end up with many physical and emotional
problems. The physical problems include fatigue, chronic pain, loss of physical
strength, loss of appetite, and weight loss. Moreover the experience of having a
family member with mental illness can lead to persistent sense of loss and grief
in care givers. The patient behavioral problems such as being verbally abusive,
withdrawal, abnormal behavior that is disturbing and dependency contribute to
the experiences of burden on care giver. Sometimes family caregivers feel
absolutely defeated, and have feelings of anxiety, anger and stress. According
to the MetLife Study of Working Caregivers and Employer Health Care Costs (2004)
Employees in the U.S. who are caring for an older relative are more likely to
report health problems like depression, diabetes, hypertension or heart disease.
It also found that caregiving may be closely associated with high risk behaviors
like smoking and alcohol consumption. Basheer. S, Niazi. R. S, Minhas F. A,
Najam. N. (2005) reported that caregivrs of young mentally ill and with duration
of eighteen months or more have high levell of depression and anxiety. They
often face challenges associated with role strain and even they are not able to
perform their normal daily activities. They feel difficulty in interacting with
people and their routine life gets disturb. Moreover there are some other
factors which can increase the burden on caregivers like stigma associated with
mental illness, financial burden and decreased social support. The financial
burden is due to medical costs and the patient’s economic dependency. The other
reason is due to dependency of sick family member so caregiver not able to
maintain their job responsibility.
Supporting a person with mental illness can be tiring work. The role of
caregiver is important in order to provide support so it is essential that they
look after themselves. If the caregiver is distressed, they may not be able to
provide support to their ill family member. In addition the caregiver should
join self help group or peer support talk and debrief with them. It also helps
to improve mood and provides an opportunity to develop friendship and rebuild
social network. In addition it can help them to receive support which eventually
fosters wellbeing. The family members should understand the family caregiver
suffering and help them in provision of material resources such as money and
transportation or physical assistance. The other interventions are to take time
for relaxation such as exercise regularly and meet a friend or watch a movie to
relax because it will help to manage stress. The caregivers should seek
information regarding care and management of ill family member so they can
provide the best care to their loved one. It also provides a sense of caring and
acceptance and reduces distress.
In conclusion families are a vital part of the care system for persons with a
chronic mental illness. Successful management of chronic mental illness relies
significantly on family caregivers. Caregiving is a stressful task so it is very
important to carefully assess the caregiver’s needs. If the caregiver is
distressed, they may not be able to provide support to their ill family member.
It is very important to provide them support and help them in order to reduce
their stress and help them to live a healthy life.