Family support in chronic illness

M.A.When a person is diagnosed with a chronic illness, the family as a whole is affected. The family members as caregivers to the patient become the clients. During the course of their care-giving, family members encounter various situations that require them to give ethical and value-ridden decisions that are related to the care and wellbeing of their patients. Many of the issues and dilemmas facing family members as caregivers place them in a double-bind situation. The decision to act or not to act is emotionally painful and guilt-provoking. These impacts on the family members warrant that they be assisted by a social worker, to adjust to a new situation as caregivers and also to preserve the normal family functioning system. The goal of this study is to investigate the emotional and social impact chronic illness has on the patient's family, with the purpose of formulating recommendations for the improvement of current family interventions as part of chronically ill patients rehabilitation programme. The study was conducted at Emseni Chronic Care center, which is a hospital for the chronically ill patients in Hillbrow. There are about 240 patients of which more than 60% are dislocated from their families. Purposive sampling was used in this study and 26 patient's families were interviewed. The qualitative approach is adopted in this study. The qualitative approach has advantages that it is a highly effective means of obtaining the information required for further understanding and exploration of a topic, Cresswell (1994). A qualitative interview was used with one main question, to gather data for the study. The data was also analyzed qualitatively and conclusions are drawn from the results. The study presents the guidelines as recommendations to be considered when working with families of chronically ill patients. The researcher is of the opinion that if practiced properly, the guidelines can be a valuable asset as a tool for social workers working with the family members as part of rehabilitation programme for the chronically ill patients.Dr. W. Roestenbur