Aim Admission to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a stressful event and unforeseen crisis for the caregivers. Burden and psychosocial distress among caregivers in the ICU were unexplored. Therefore, the current study was aimed to assess the caregivers’ burden and psychological distress among caregivers of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients at emergency ICU during hospitalization. Materials and Methods A total of 60 caregivers recruited by using purposive sampling method with descriptive research design. Consent was obtained. Interview schedule of family for depression, anxiety, stress scale (DAS-21) were administered. The data were analyzed by using SPSS. Descriptive statistics and independent burden t-test were used. Results Results revealed that male caregivers (75%) and female caregivers (25%) took part in the study. Caregivers' mean age was found to be 35.22±11.29 years. Most of the TBI survivors admitted in ICU had severe injury (8.30±3.63). Mean scores showed that caregivers had experienced financial burden (6.28±2.36), severe depression (12.15±4.84), and a moderate level of anxiety (12.85±5.20). Independent t-test showed significant difference in caregiving burden between male and female caregivers at ICU (Male = 18.43±4.83; Female = 14.29±4.83; t = 2.16; p <0.035). Overall, caregivers experienced higher family burden and severe psychological distress at ICU. Conclusion There is an immediate need to assess psychological distress and family burden of caregivers at ICU and provide timely psychosocial intervention. How to cite this article Kanmani TR, Thimmappur RM, Birudu R, Reddy KN, Raj P. Burden and Psychological Distress of Intensive Care Unit Caregivers of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients. Indian J Crit Care Med 2019;23(5):220-223.

Background:Despite of growing evidence of mental disorders in developing countries, research on mental health literacy is limited from India.Aim:To examine mental health literacy among caregivers of persons with mental illnessMaterials and Methods:A cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out among 161 randomly selected caregivers of persons with mental illness at outpatient department of a tertiary care centre. Data was collected through face to face interview using a structured questionnaire.Results:Regarding the causes of mental illness, a majority agreed that genetic inheritance (69%), substance abuse (64%) and brain disease (59.6%) are main factors for developing mental illness. Although more than two-thirds agreed that anyone could suffer from mental illness, 61.5% also agreed that people with mental health problems are largely to blame for their condition. The majority of the participants also agreed that mentally ill are not able to maintain friendships (45.9%), are dangerous (54%), and not capable to work (59.1%). Just over half (55.9%) of the participants would not want people to know if they had a mental illness and nearly half of them also expressed that they would feel ashamed if a family member had a mental illness.Conclusion:Based on the findings of the present study researchers suggest that there is an urgent need to educate and change the attitudes of caregivers through mental health literacy programs specifically designed for them.

Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability in young people. TBI is associated with increased mortality, morbidity, and socioeconomic loss, especially in developing countries such as India. It is creating damage to the psychosocial well–being of caregiver and their family members significantly. Caregivers’ informational, educational, psychosocial problems are still overlooked and unaddressed. Providing psychosocial interventions such as educating caregivers about TBI-related consequences, increasing social support, mobilization of resources for the needy, and dealing with psychological stress will be beneficial to reduce the caregiver burden. Medical and psychiatric social workers (MPSWs) have important role in providing psychosocial care and decreasing caregiver burden of TBI survivors. This case report highlights the role of MPSWs in the emergency and trauma care setting.

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Background:Traumatic brain injury (TBI) will be the third largest killer by the year 2020 in the world. It creates the great amount of morbidity, disability, mortality, and reduces the psychosocial well-being of the patients and their caregivers. Hence, the current paper aimed to explore the psychosocial distress and caregivers’ concerns in emergency and trauma care (ETC) setting.Methodology:This study adopted qualitative research design. All caregivers of TBI survivors were considered as a universe of the study. A total of 50 caregivers were recruited, and the predesigned questionnaire was administered. Depression, anxiety, stress scale was used to identify the caregivers’ depression, stress, and anxiety. The simple thematic analysis was used to derive the themes from the verbatim data. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 (SPSS South Asia Pvt. Ltd, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India).Results:In the quantitative analysis, caregivers’ mean age was found to be 45 (mean = 45.00 ± 13.83) years. Caregivers had experienced mild depression (13.36 ± 3.07), moderate anxiety (13.70 ± 3.03), and minimum stress (13.66 ± 2.98) levels. Qualitative results identified the following themes: difficulty in accessing timely care, uncertainty about the prognosis and future, family concerns and financial constraints, personal feelings and personal needs, and supportive care. Chi-square test revealed that there was no significant association between gender and depression (χ2 = 2.381 P < 0.12), anxiety (χ2 = 0.01 P < 0.92), and stress (χ2 = 0.235 P < 0.61) levels of caregivers.Conclusion:To accomplish, providing psychosocial care in ETC setting, the role of psychiatric social workers is pivotal.