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Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental illness that has repercussions for the afflicted individual as well as the immediate family. While family caregiving entails enormous burden, it is also acknowledged that the experience may be perceived as being rewarding. This study seeks to understand key aspects of caregiving in terms of perceived rewards, the experience of hope, and the social support available to family caregivers. Standardized instruments to assess these variables were administered to primary caregivers of people with schizophrenia and a comparative group. It was seen that both hope, and perceived social support significantly predicted reward perception in the caregivers.

Background: The extant literature portrays informal caregiving by family members who care for a person with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, as one that involves a tremendous amount of stress and burden. Aims: This investigation sought to assess informal caregiving experience with regard to variables such as perceived positive aspects, preparedness, resilience, and life satisfaction. Method: Data was collected from two groups of respondents accessing services at the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India. The study group consisted of 75 family caregivers of persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and the reference group had an equal number of caregivers of people with minor physical ailments. The two groups were matched on important background factors, ensuring their comparability. Standardised instruments were administered to all respondents to collect data pertaining to the key variables and analysed using appropriate statistical procedures. Results: Results indicated that caregivers of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, while manifesting higher levels of resilience, perceived lesser positive aspects in their caring role. A significant statistical difference between both groups of respondents in terms of their life satisfaction and resilience. Regression analyses extracted preparedness and life satisfaction as significant contributors to the manifestation of resilience in the caregivers. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of caregiver preparedness and life satisfaction in influencing their resilience.

Background: Caregiving in schizophrenia is a demanding and exhausting activity that challenges the physical and emotional resources of family caregivers. In traditional societies such as India, this is further compounded by illiteracy, ignorance and religious and cultural explanations attributed to mental illness. Aims: This study aimed to assess primary caregivers of persons with schizophrenia in terms of their perceived burden, manifestation of psychological distress and quality of life (QOL). Methods: The study used a quantitative cross-sectional design and survey methodology to collect data from caregivers in a hospital setting in Thanjavur, India. Standardized instruments were used to collect data from patients and their caregivers. Results: High perceived burden and lower QOL were seen in the majority of caregivers. They also manifested high levels of anxiety and depression. Patient characteristics such as age, gender, symptoms and duration of illness did not influence the perceived burden of caregivers, while positive and negative symptoms and the duration of illness were correlated with their QOL. Conclusions: Findings indicate the need for intervention for family caregivers to enable them cope more effectively with the demands of caregiving. Psychoeducation and participation in peer support groups are advocated as low resource and effective outcome strategies for caregivers in India.

Schizophrenia is a global mental health issue that has serious implications not only for the person with the diagnosis, but for caregivers as well. In Asian societies, the family tends to be the “natural” caregiver in such situations and the caregiving function is usually shouldered by parents or the spouse. Asian communities tend to be more closely knit, and it would be expected that more social support would be available to those facing distressing circumstances such as managing the demands of a person with mental illness. This study seeks to explore the perceived burden in family caregivers of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia, the coping strategies that come into play, as well as the extent of social support available to them. Standardized instruments were administered to collect data at a teaching cum treatment facility in south India. A quantitative methodology was used to analyze cross-sectional data from 75 primary caregivers of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a reference group of caregivers of patients with general medical ailments. Results indicate higher levels of burden, low social support, and poor coping in the caregivers of people with schizophrenia than the reference group. Implications for intervention with caregivers are also discussed in this article.