Experiences of relatives caring for psychiatric patients in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

IF 3.5 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

British Journal of Health Psychology Pub Date : 2023-10-16 DOI:10.1111/bjhp.12701

Gideon Antonio, Isaac Nyarko Kwakye, Cynthia Essel

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose

The study aimed at examining the lived experiences of relatives caring for family members with mental illness in Ghana.

Methods

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was adopted to explore caregivers' in-depth experiences. Fifteen caregivers were purposefully selected from four hospitals within the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, and they were engaged in face-to-face interview sessions through the semi-structured guided interviews. Interviews were transcribed into text formats and analysed using the IPA approach.

Results

Three superordinate themes and their respective sub-themes were identified. Theme 1: Being with the mentally ill (time consuming; financial burden; healer shopping); Theme 2: Psychosocial effect (stigmatization; stress and depression; changes in social/work life); Theme3: Coping resources (prayers/spirituality; psychological capital – ignoring, self-encouragement, acceptance, routinization; social/family support; reading).

Conclusion

It was recommended that healthcare professionals ought to prepare family members for the emotional challenges by providing them with constant therapeutic service to help reduce their emotional strain associated with the burden of care. Public education should be intensified for people to understand the need for accepting people with mental illness in order to reduce the issue of stigmatization. Again, government should institute policies through its agencies (Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service) to assist the caregivers in the discharge of responsibilities. This could take the form of reducing cost of drugs, and establishing community mental health care to provide immediate support.

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加纳大阿克拉地区照顾精神病患者亲属的经历。

目的：本研究旨在调查加纳照顾精神疾病家庭成员的亲属的生活经历。方法：采用解释性现象学分析（IPA）来探索照顾者的深入经历。有目的地从加纳大阿克拉地区的四家医院中挑选了15名护理人员，他们通过半结构化的指导访谈进行了面对面的访谈。访谈被转录成文本格式，并使用IPA方法进行分析。结果：确定了三个上级主题及其各自的子主题。主题1：和精神病患者在一起（耗时；经济负担；治疗师购物）；主题2：心理社会影响（污名化；压力和抑郁；社会/工作生活的变化）；主题3：应对资源（祈祷/精神；心理资本-忽视、自我鼓励、接受、常规化；社会/家庭支持；阅读）小心。应加强公众教育，让人们了解接受精神病患者的必要性，以减少污名化问题。同样，政府应通过其机构（卫生部、加纳卫生服务局）制定政策，帮助护理人员履行职责。这可以采取降低药物成本的形式，并建立社区心理健康护理来提供即时支持。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

British Journal of Health Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

14.10

自引率

1.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The focus of the British Journal of Health Psychology is to publish original research on various aspects of psychology that are related to health, health-related behavior, and illness throughout a person's life. The journal specifically seeks articles that are based on health psychology theory or discuss theoretical matters within the field.