Introduction: Understanding the attitude of caregivers towards suicide attempters could be useful in suicide prevention. The objective of this study was to study attitude towards suicide among caregivers of patients with suicide attempt admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Nepal. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 52 caregivers of patients with suicide attempt who had been admitted to a tertiary care hospital of Nepal after obtaining ethical clearance from Institutional Review Committee (ref. IRC/0797/016). Data were collected through interviews using the Attitude towards Suicide Questionnaire and in-depth interviews conducted on five caregivers using the interview framework developed in the department for the purpose. Data and descriptive analysis were done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. Content analysis was used for qualitative data. Results: Majority of the caregivers 34 (65.4%) had unfavorable attitude towards suicide. Caregivers reported that mental and chronic physical illness, financial difficulty, working environment, and social factors such as undue pressure and failure to perform the task, difficulty maintaining the relationship, abuse, and neglect could be some of the possible causes of suicide. Caring and understanding attitude of family members, health professionals, and society towards the suicidal individuals providing appropriate training and education to the public would help in reducing the stigma and burden of suicidal patients. Conclusions: The overall attitude of the caregivers was unfavorable. Interventions targeted towards improving attitude towards suicide could be helpful in suicide prevention.

Delegates of the 2022 Symposium on Dementia and Brain Aging in Low-and Middle-Income Countries, representing over 40 countries, met in Nairobi, Kenya, December 5-9 to highlight advances in dementia prevention, diagnosis, care, and research, as well as explore the future needs of the global community.Dementia poses a major threat to optimal brain health and remains a priority for the demographically ever-changing worldwide population.It incurs substantial individual, societal, and global costs. By 2030, the majority of the 78 million people with dementia will be living in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Upon consideration of these grave statistics and new diagnostic paradigms with available prevention and treatment strategies, we, the undersigned delegates of the symposium, including the Organizing Committee and speakers, and the African Dementia Consortium (AfDC), with frontline and lived experience, call upon the global community, including governments, policymakers, international economic forums, health and social care providers, together with private and public research funding agencies, researchfocused organizations such as universities, nongovernmental organizations, and technology and pharmaceutical companies, to act as follows:

Background: Informal caregivers played a substantial role in caring the COVID-19 patients during hospitalization in Nepal. This study attempted to understand the family caregiver’s experiences while attending their relatives in a COVID-19 Hospital of Nepal. Methods: A descriptive phenomenological approach was used to understand the caregiver’s experience of attending and supporting their relatives admitted to the COVID-19 hospital of B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences.13 caregivers of COVID-19 positive were purposively selected from January to March 2022. A face-to-face interview was conducted in a caregiver residential facility using the interview schedule developed by the department for the purpose of data collection after obtaining ethical clearance from the Institutional review committee of B. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (B.P.K.I.H.S). Data were audio recorded and manually analyzed. Results: 13 caregivers (6 male and 7 female) participated in the study. The result was summarized under the five domains: Challenges encountered Changes in Physical and Mental Health, Changes in roles and responsibilities, Positive experiences, and Things that could make Caregiving tasks easier. The major challenges were a financial burden, communication problems, stigmatized attitude, Insecurity and vulnerability, substandard accommodation facility, and visitor restriction policy. A wide range of negative emotions, as well as unmet physical health needs, was reported. Changes in family and occupational roles as a result of the caregiving process cause additional stress to the caregivers. Despite all, they tried to positively cope and adapt to the difficult situation and acknowledged the effort of health personnel and other significant members of the family. Provision of essential medical and basic services/facilities within the hospital, reconstruction of open accommodation facility, maintaining a proper channel of communication, and visitation allowance were suggested as care facilitators to make caregiving tasks easier. Conclusions: This study highlights the role of caregivers is very crucial during the time of health crisis.

Background: Family caregivers play a key role in preventing suicide attempts. The objective of this study was to study the caregiving stress of the patients admitted with suicide attempt at a tertiary care hospital in Nepal.Methods: A mixed method study was conducted with 52 family caregivers of suicidal people who had been admitted at B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan with history of suicide attempt. Data were collected through interview using Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale and in-depth interview was conducted on five family caregivers using interview framework developed in the department for the purpose. Results: The mean caregiving stress score was 29.84(SD=5.11), with the mean score of score 22.0 (±3.9) in caregiving issues, 4.3(±1.9) in family issues and 3.5(±0.9) in financial issues respectively. Majority (65.4%) of the caregiver had perceived stress scores above the mean score. Caregiver’s stress was significantly associated with age (p= 0.023), marital status (p= 0.008) and patient’s mode of attempt (p=0.035) with stress level being higher in those with older age, married and hanging as the mode of suicide attempt. In-depth interview showed that financial difficulties, emotional and physical problems, difficulty maintaining daily activities, and stigma related problem seem to significantly increase caregiver’s stress. Conclusions: The study showed overall stress level of caregivers was high.Keywords: Caregiver; stress; suicide attempter