Social Support among Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Background: schizophrenia is considered a severe mental illness. People with schizophrenia may experienceimpairment in their thought process, which influences their behavior.Objective: To assess the social support among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia, and to examine theeffects of social support in the presence of health stressors and to determine the association betweendeterminants of some variable and social support.Methods: sixty caregivers of 60 patients with schizophrenia were recruited during their relative'shospitalization. Caregivers were interviewed and the data were collected by self report questionnaire usingthe multidimensional social support scale (MSPSS). Then, data was analyzed by descriptive and LinearRegression correlation.Results: overall social support was perceived at a moderate level. There was significant association betweenpatients’ clinical characteristics and caregivers’ socio-demographic characteristics with family functioning insome variables.Conclusions: The study concluded that there is an acceptable level of social support for schizophrenicpatient family care givers.Recommendations: The researchers recommend made another research on the role of social support infacilitating recovery and integration into the community those living with mental illness and their families.