Resilience factors in families living with people with mental illnesses

Abstract

In South Africa, a substantial burden is placed on families living with people with mental illnesses. The aim of this study was to identify resilience factors in families living in an underprivileged area, caring for people with mental illnesses. Data was obtained from family representatives (N 5 34) using semistructured interviews and a set of seven self-report, quantitative questionnaires during the course of a onceoff interview. The results of the qualitative analysis show that the most commonly cited resilience factors are religion and spirituality, and personal characteristics of individual family members. Both these factors were cited by 67.6% of the participants. The results of the Spearman correlations showed that the factor that displayed the strongest relationship with family adaptation was the quality of communication in the family unit. C 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are as many as 450 million people suffering from a mental or behavioral disorder worldwide and that one in four families has at least one member currently suffering from a mental or behavioral disorder. They further state that at any point in time there are more than 150 million people suffering from depression and about 25 million suffering from schizophrenia-and it is expected that the burden of mental illness will rise significantly over the next 20 years (WHO, 2003). There are two measurement components to the burden of disease-the Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) and the Years Lived with Disability (YLD). The DALY is a calculation of the time lived with disability and the time lost because of premature death-each DALY being equivalent to a year of healthy life lost. The YLD is calculated based on incident cases of the disease. Globally, 13% of disability adjusted life years and 33% of years lived with disability are as a result of mental illness (WHO, 2002). Depression, alcohol-use

Resilience in Families Caring for a Family Member Diagnosed with Dementia

“…However, no significant correlation was found in the quantitative results between family adaptation and the family's tendency to use spiritual and religious support as a coping strategy (see Table 1). Similar discrepancies have been found in other family resilience studies (Greeff & Thiel, 2012;Greeff et al, 2006;Jonker & Greeff, 2009). These contrasting results could possibly be attributed to the nature of the items in the measuring instrument (F-COPES: Spiritual support), as the items focus on the families' involvement in a religious or congregational affiliation and neglect the spiritual support provided through personal or familial rituals (e.g., prayer, meditation, family Bible study).…”

“…The theoretical framework in the current study also identified cohesiveness among family members as a significant resilience resource (Patterson, 2002;Walsh, 2003). Jonker and Greeff's (2009) qualitative results also identified family connectedness as a resilience resource.…”

“…The families in these studies relied on their internal strengths to help them through difficult situations. They were described as flexible and open to change, innovative and proactive when faced with new experiences, accepting, respectful, loving, and supportive towards one another, and willing to work together as a unit to overcome their problems (Greeff & Thiel, 2012;Greeff, Van Steenwegen & Ide, 2006;Greeff & Wentworth, 2009;Jonker & Greeff, 2009;McCubbin & McCubbin, 1988;Preece & Sandberg, 2005). The results also showed that families making use of passive appraisal as a coping strategy were better able to deal with the emotional hardships of caring for a chronically ill loved one.…”

“…Once families accepted that they were unable to change their circumstances, they were able to cope better with their situation (Greeff et al, 2006). Other resilience resources identified in studies on families caring for a chronically ill loved one include the following: family hardiness, positivism and optimism, humor, family togetherness, family traditions and rituals, predictable routines, community support, religious beliefs, information seeking, open, positive communication patterns, and the family's socioeconomic status (Greeff et al, 2006;Greeff & Thiel, 2012;94 M. DEIST AND A. P. GREEF Greeff & Wentworth, 2009;Jonker & Greeff, 2009;McCubbin & McCubbin, 1988;Preece & Sandberg, 2005).…”

Faith Resilience: Everyday Experiences

“…This research mainly focuses on mental health [25,26], family relations [27,28], children and young people [29,30], and aging [31,32]. These studies have shown that faith plays a positive role in resilience building: utilising faith for meaning-making and framing of events contributed to the enhanced ability of individuals to deal with major negative life situations.…”