Coping Strategies in Aymara Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Deinstitutionalization has forced families of patients with schizophrenia to take responsibility of informal care, without having the tools to exert their role properly. The aim of this study was to evaluate the coping strategies of caregivers of patients with schizophrenia, belonging to the Aymara ethnic group, (aborigines who are located on the highlands of Northern Chile). The studied sample comprised 45 caregivers of patients with schizophrenia users of the Mental Health Service of Arica, Chile. The results from the Family Coping Questionnaire (FCQ) show that both, Aymara and non-Aymara caregivers use the same coping strategies except for spiritual help which is more likely to be used by Aymara. This strategy might be related with the worldview they possess, thus the relation with the deities has a meaningful importance in the way of explaining and coping with different phenomena.

Vietnamese-American family caregivers of persons with mental illness: Exploring caregiving experience in cultural context

“…While family involvement can have a positive impact on the recovery process of persons with SMI, existing studies show that family members who care for persons with SMI may experience chronic and persistent psychological and emotional pain, agony, and distress that often go unrecognized and untreated (Caqueo-Urízar, Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Ferrer-García, & Miranda-Castillo, 2012; Shah, Wadoo, & Latoo, 2010; Zauszniewski & Bekhet, 2014). Previous studies on non-Hispanic White FCs in the USA indicate that caregiving for a family member with mental illness is associated with poorer health and a decrease in overall quality of life for the caregiver (Caqueo-Urízar et al., 2012). Caregiving distress among ethnic minority FCs of persons with SMI has been attracting more interest among mental health professionals, researchers, and policy makers, as seen in the increased number of studies focusing on FCs of persons with SMI in the African-American and Hispanic populations.…”

A systematic review of Indigenous caregiver functioning and interventions

“…Three of the studies contained numerous methodological weaknesses that limited the reliability and usefulness of their findings (Caqueo-Urizar, Gutierrez- Castillo, 2012;Jervis et al, 2010;Korn et al, 2009). Despite the availability of stress and coping models that incorporate race/culture into explanations of caregiver functioning ( e.g., Hilgeman et al, 2009;Knight, Silverstein, McCallum, & Fox, 2000;Pinquart & Sorensen, 2005) there was a marked absence of theoretical frameworks to help guide research questions and specific hypotheses.…”

Adaptation of a scale to measure coping strategies in informal primary caregivers of psychiatric patients

“…Mosquera et al (2016), in a systematic review of studies published in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French concerning the issue, found that only one study, which used the Task Management Strategy Index, reported data reliability and validity for the population in which it had been used. In the literature review conducted for this article, we found that researchers trusted in studies that relied on psychometric data from other countries and studies involving groups of patients or caregivers whose characteristics were not necessarily comparable (Caqueo-Urízar et al, 2012;Iavarone et al, 2014;Kohlsdorf & Costa-Junior, 2012).…”

“…The nature and effectiveness of coping strategies commonly used by informal caregivers has been little studied. Although there are studies that have evaluated PIC's coping styles in patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder (Caqueo‐Urízar et al., ; Stringer et al., ), the scales used in these studies do not have the minimum psychometric properties that such a scale should fulfil.…”

“…The nature and effectiveness of coping strategies commonly used by informal caregivers has been little studied. Although there are studies that have evaluated PIC's coping styles in patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder (Caqueo-Urízar et al, 2012;Stringer et al, 2015), the scales used in these studies do not have the minimum psychometric properties that such a scale should fulfil. Mosquera et al (2016), in a systematic review of studies published in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French concerning the issue, found that only one study, which used the Task Management Strategy Index, reported data reliability and validity for the population in which it had been used.…”