Family burden and relatives’ participation in psychiatric care : some data from Sweden

Objectives: Relatives of people with mental illnesses are affected in many different areas of life, and are often concerned that their ill family members might be of danger to themselves or others. The aim of this presentation is to report some results from Swedish studies of relatives focusing on stigma, family burden, participation in care, and attitudes towards coercive treatment. Methods: In three different data collection periods in a longitudinal project, in all 455 relatives of committed and voluntarily admitted patients were interviewed, using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: A majority of relatives experienced psychological factors of stigma by association. Relatives‘ burden and participation in care were not found to be associated to violent behaviour by the patients or to the patients‘ diagnoses, but relatives of patients with suicide attempts scored higher on some of the burden and participation items than other relatives. Relatives reported stronger support for coercion in order to protect the patient than for easing family burden and protecting others. Conclusion: The results indicate that relatives of psychiatric patients experience stigma by association and low participation in care, but in general support the need for compulsory psychiatric care in specific situations. However, despite a heavy burden due to the patients‘ mental illnesses, relatives do not primarily call for coercion in order to ease the family burden. There is a need for the psychiatric services to involve and support relatives of patients with suicidal behaviour