Distress in Caregivers of a Family Member With Serious Mental Illness

It is well documented that mental illness influences not only the person diagnosed but also the family. The following study explored distress in 169 caregivers of a family member with serious mental illness (SMI). Factors such as time spent caregiving, type of familial relationship, mental health tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Family journal (Alexandria, Va.) Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 286 - 294
Main Authors Crowe, Allison, Brinkley, Jason
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2015
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Caregivers
Emotional disorders
Families & family life
Mental disorders
Mental health care
Quantitative psychology
Regression analysis
Mental Illness Distress Scale
serious mental illness
caregivers
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Summary:It is well documented that mental illness influences not only the person diagnosed but also the family. The following study explored distress in 169 caregivers of a family member with serious mental illness (SMI). Factors such as time spent caregiving, type of familial relationship, mental health treatment, and income were explored as they associated to caregiver depression and family discord. Regression models suggested that caregiving for a son or daughter or devoting 20 hr a week or less to caregiving was associated with lower distress levels. Higher numbers of difficult behaviors exhibited by the person diagnosed were associated with higher family discord. The Mental Illness Distress Scale demonstrated some capacity to measure distress related to having a family member with SMI.
ISSN:1066-4807
1552-3950
DOI:10.1177/1066480715572967