Experiences of family caregivers of persons living with mental illness : a meta-synthesis

• Published in: Curationis (Pretoria) Vol. 42; no. 1; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: Ntsayagae, Esther I., Myburgh, Chris, Poggenpoel, Marie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: South Africa AOSIS 2019; African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS; AOSIS (Pty) Ltd; Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Biology; Care and treatment; Caregivers; Caregivers - psychology; Caregiving; Chronic illnesses; Coping; Cost of Illness; Experiences; Family; Family caregivers; Family relations; Health Care Sciences & Services; Health Policy & Services; Humans; Life Change Events; Medical research; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - complications; Mental Disorders - psychology; Mental health; Mental health services; Mentally ill patients; Mentally ill persons; Meta-synthesis; Nursing; Original Research; Philosophy; Psychiatric-mental health nursing; Psychological aspects; Psychological symptoms; Public health; Qualitative Research; Social aspects; Social Stigma; Social Support; Africa; Botswana; meta-synthesis; family caregivers; caregiving; experiences; mentally ill patients; coping
• ISSN: 0379-8577; 2223-6279; 2223-6279
• DOI: 10.4102/curationis.v42i1.1900

Background: Meta-synthesis is used to generate and understand new insights from a qualitative perspective. Caregiving is associated with a range of physical and psychological symptoms. Caregivers bear the brunt of caregiving and this has become worse since the inception of de-institutionalisation, as more patients are discharged into the community under the care of their families.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to synthesise phenomenological qualitative studies and create a comprehensive chronicle of phenomena of family caregivers’ experiences of caring for relatives living with mental illness.Method: Google Scholar and different electronic databases, which included CINAHL, MEDLINE, EBSCO and PubMed, were searched using keywords for relevant studies published from 1994 to 2014. To obtain an in-depth view of caregivers’ lived experiences, a qualitative meta-synthesis was employed to review the findings of 10 studies.Results: A total of 10 studies were included in the meta-synthesis. The family caregivers described their caregiving experiences under four themes: perceived responsibility of caregiving, experiences of emotional effect, experiences of support needs and experiences of changed perspective.Conclusion: The meta-synthesis revealed a lack of emotional coping among the family caregivers. This calls for robust family caregiver interventions to facilitate their mental health.