Livet som en berg- och dalbana- om anhöriga till personer med bipolär sjukdom

Author: Frida Olander Title: Life as a rollercoaster- regarding relatives of people with bipolar disorder (translated title) Supervisor: Hanna Wittrock The aim of this study was to examine relatives’ possibility to dialogue and participate in the inpatient psychiatric care. The relatives should be involved in the care, but to what extent can they be? What controls relatives’ contact with the inpatient psychiatric care? Is it the psychiatric staff, the ill person or the law? A qualitative content analysis was made of three autobiographical books and one documentary. Central to these are that they relate to relatives’ experience of living with a person with bipolar disorder and how they describe their contact with and participation in the inpatient psychiatry care. The results showed that the relatives want to be more involved than they are. Relatives feel a need for information and that their opinions will be acknowledged. What mainly determines relatives’ involvement in health care is the law which is supporting the patient’s autonomy, which means that the patient may choose not to provide information to their relatives. The results also showed that although the patient does not object to relatives’ participation, the staff does not always offer the patients relatives to participate. The most common feelings the relatives felt are shame, concern, fatigue, hope, despair, responsibility and frustration