A qualitative study to assess the psycho-social problems faced by primary caretakers Of mentally ill person in selected Hospital of delhi

Abstract

Introduction: Caregivers of mentally ill persons often have to sacrifice their own physical and emotional needs, and undertake a lot of stress and challenges while dealing with the person with severe mental illness. Therefore, in order to understand the lived experiences and challenges faced by primary caretakers, a qualitative study was conducted to assess the psycho-social problems faced by primary caretakers of the mentally ill persons under 2 domains: psychological and social. The questions assessed in the research were: what are the psychological problems experiences of primary caretakers of the mentally ill? What are the social experiences of primary caretakers of a mentally ill person? How has the diagnosis of mental illness of a family member affected the day-to-day life of primary caretaker? and the challenges faced by primary caretakers of the mentally ill persons. Methods: A qualitative approach with the phenomenological design was implemented. Participants were selected through the purposive sampling technique and data was collected using a semistructured interview schedule. Result and conclusion: Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data of the research, and subsequent themes, subthemes, and categories emerged which were variability in their emotions, annoyance in their day-to-day life, perturbation, depression, agitation, stressful life, guilt and shame, palpitation, feeling of ungratified, insomnia, decreased appétit, suicidal thought, lacking in civil support, social tattoo/stigmatization and labeling in the society, apprehensions about the marriage, having an economic crisis, challenges like treatment, hospitalization, coping with the situation, and disturbance in conveying the feelings which lead to stagnation in the life of the caretakers of the mentally ill persons. The participants in this study had several resources at hand, including the treatment facilities, counseling, family and social support, which contributed in coping with the stress and enabled them to provide care to their family member with mental illness. Thus, it showed that caretakers of the mentally ill had overall a positive living and acceptance of the disease condition.