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Case Study

| Published: December 25, 2016

Families Living with Mental Illness

Aditi Rana

Research scholar, Department of Applied Psychology, Vivekananda College, University of Delhi, India Google Scholar More about the auther

DIP: 18.01.018/20160401

DOI: 10.25215/0401.018

ABSTRACT

Mental illness is a growing reality of our times. Usually in a typical Indian family, the parents act as the primary caregivers for the child suffering from mental disorder. For adult sufferers, it can also be siblings or offspring, and  at times even spouse or partner. Research on the experiences of families of mentally ill people has been minimal in the Indian context. This study aims to shift the focus from the mentally ill patients to the suffering of the caregivers and families of the patient keeping in mind the interconnected well being of the family in a collectivist culture. Following a qualitative approach, narratives have been taken from the family members of mentally ill (narratives of 8 families with mentally ill person) and also the mental health professionals (two) through semi structured interviews. The findings suggest that the family members suffer from a significant amount of stress accompanied by burden. Also, they feel secluded from the society and experience a lack of assistance to deal with the mentally ill member of the family.
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Aditi Rana @ aditirana1971@gmail.com

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ISSN 2348-5396

ISSN 2349-3429

DIP: 18.01.018/20160401

DOI: 10.25215/0401.018

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Published in   Volume 04, Issue 1, October-December, 2016