Social Support among Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

AbstractBackground: schizophrenia is considered a severe mental illness. People with schizophrenia may experience impairment in their thought process, which influences their behavior.Objective: To assess the social support among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia, and to examine the effects of social support in the presence of health stressors and to determine the association between determinants of some variable and social support.Methods: sixty caregivers of 60 patients with schizophrenia were recruited during their relative's hospitalization. Caregivers were interviewed and the data were collected by self report questionnaire using the multidimensional social support scale (MSPSS). Then, data was analyzed by descriptive and Linear Regression correlation.Results: overall social support was perceived at a moderate level. There was significant association between patients’ clinical characteristics and caregivers’ socio-demographic characteristics with family functioning in some variables.Conclusions: The study concluded that there is an acceptable level of social support for schizophrenic patient family care givers.Recommendations: The researchers recommend made another research on the role of social support in facilitating recovery and integration into the community those living with mental illness and their families.Key words: Caregivers; social support; Schizophreni