An Exploration of Family Caregiver Experiences of Burden and Coping While Caring for People with Mental Disorders in Saudi Arabia—A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Family caregivers of people with mental disorders face a number of burdens and stressors, such as associative stigma and burnout. These burdens are often a result of their caring role coupled with insufficient support or ineffective coping strategies, which can affect their quality of life and biopsychosocial integrity that, in turn, may affect the care they provide. This study aimed to explore the experiences of family caregivers of people with mental disorders, through examining the burdens that they face and the coping strategies that they use. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the Saudi public, recruited through popular social media platforms and analyzed using thematic analysis. Five main themes were constructed from the data: Type of care, Challenges, Coping and support, Perceptions of public awareness, and Messages to others. The findings emphasize the different types of burdens that caregivers experience, and their needs that require a range of responses such as educational training on effective coping strategies, and psychological support in the form of counseling or group therapy. This study highlights the voice of caregivers and their message to the public, in order to correct the misconceptions surrounding mental disorders and those associated with them.

The experiences of family caregivers of people with severe mental illness in the Middle East: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative data

“…“All praise to God , we accept it because we know God is generous , eventually , we can’t escape from fate , God will be above everything” [ 29 ] (p. 9).…”

“…“I was in psychological distress myself , I felt like I was stuck in a whirlpool , a great big whirlpool … I cried very hard , it is such a difficult test from God … to have your loved ones stricken by this illness (the caregiver was crying)” [ 29 ] (p. 8)…”

“…For example, there are differences in terms of understanding the causation of mental illness, services and funding available to treat mental illness, the degree of family involvement into caregiving, and available resources to support families. As such, it is important to look to qualitative studies to produce a more detailed understanding of caregiver experience with, and between, different Middle Eastern countries [ 28 , 29 ].…”

Exploring the experience of relatives living with individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in Oman: A qualitative study

“…Previous qualitative studies in the Arab world (Abd Alhadi, 2018;Sharif et al, 2020) explored the phenomenon of families living with mental illness. However, none of them investigated the lived experience of relatives of hospitalized patients with schizophrenia.…”

The Role of Religious Coping in Caregiving Stress

“…When accomplishing their care duties, caregivers often experience stressors and burdens (Sharif et al 2020). A primary stressor for caregivers is PwSs' problematic behaviors as a manifestation of schizophrenia (Pearlin et al 1990).…”