The experiences of carers in Taiwanese culture who have long‐term schizophrenia in their families: a phenomenological study

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe illness with little hope of recovery and requires long-term care. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of carers who live with someone with long-term schizophrenia, within the cultural context of Taiwan. The study was conducted in a community setting in central Taiwan. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used to explore the experiences of carers. Purposive sampling was used by selecting the carers who were close relatives of the clients, had lived with the clients for at least 1 year and bore most of the responsibilities. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect the data and narratives were analysed using Colaizzi's (1978) seven-step method. Data saturation was achieved after interviewing 10 carers. Three themes and eight sub-themes were identified: burdens of caring (helping clients' illness, lack of professional support and family conflicts), emotional burdens (sadness, worry and fear) and strategies of coping (cognitive and religious coping strategies). Our study supported the importance for nurses to understand the cultural aspects of mental illness, particularly the widespread cultural beliefs and patterns of help seeking behaviours, in order to provide culturally sensitive health care.

Schizophrenia: its psychological effects on family caregivers

“…The transcript was checked for accuracy and identifying data were replaced with pseudonyms. Data coding was done manually by working systematically to assign categories as described by Huang et al (2009). The categories used to develop themes were selected on the basis of repeated patterns across the data set (Braun & Clarke 2006).…”

“…The global prevalence of schizophrenia is estimated at 1.1% of the population over the age of 18 years (WHO 2011). In the United States, there are roughly 87,000 acute-care admissions for the treatment of schizophrenia annually (Marcus & Olfson 2008), while in Taiwan, there are 76, 458 people with schizophrenia inclusive of admissions and outpatients (Huang et al 2009). While there is a lack of reliable data on the epidemiology of schizophrenia in the Caribbean, it is estimated that at least 20 million persons diagnosed with schizophrenia, live in developing countries (Caribbean Community [CARICOM] Secretariat 2007).…”

Primary Caregivers of People with Severe Mental Illness Experience of Anti-Psychotic Medication: Findings from the Semi-Structured Interviews

“…This was also supported by Huang et al (2009), who stated that family caregivers who had misinterpreted the causes of their relative's illness (schizophrenia) were seen to employ various help-seeking behaviours to cope with the illness, such as herbal medicine.…”

Psychometric Evaluation of Family Illness Perceptions of Relatives with Schizophrenia

“…In Chinese society, which is generally sociocentric, family can be an effective resource, and family caregivers are likely to be very involved in the patient's treatment, including accompanying patients to their clinic visits and staying with them (often 24 hours a day) while they are hospitalized [18,19]. The entire family typically shares the honor and bears the shame for all family members [20].…”