Relationship among care burden, social support and thoughts about community mental health centers, of families of the individuals diagnosed with chronic mental disorder

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate and identify the correlation between opinion of caregivers on service at the Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) received by patients who were diagnosed as chronic mental disorder and their caregivers. Method: The research has conducted between February 12 – July 05, 2018 at a Community Mental Health Center which is a unit under a governmental Education and Research Hospital in Istanbul. 150 caregivers were selected based on research criteria to form the sample of this study. "Descriptive Information Question Form", "Burden Interview", "The Social Support Index" And " The Relative And Friend Support Index" used in this study to collect data. The numerical and percentage distribution based on characteristic of the patients and their caregivers used to assess status of using service at the mental center. t-test, oneway ANOVA and correlation analysis were used to evaluate the relation between status of using service and social support and care burden. Findings: It is observed that the patients received benefit from CMHC if they signed up for the service provided by the center. Caregivers believe that symptoms of illness could be decreased, self-confidence of patients could be improved, patients could make new friends and take control of their medication and treatment if they use CMHC service regularly. In additionally, it is found that caregivers believe service offered to patient provided by CMHC is also beneficial for them in a way of helping them to feel much stronger and need less help than before. Even the families who use CMHC irregularly admitted they received some benefit from the service. And it is determined that the care burden on caregivers was established less than before if the service used regularly. And it is found out that there is no meaningful correlation between social support and the support from relatives and friends. Conclusion and Recommendation: The patients who has been cronic mental disorder and caregivers were positively affected and got benefits from the service CMHC has been offering. And considerable healing on the disease have been observed. According to the findings in this study, improving operational effectiveness of CMHC while increasing in their numbers in different locations could be helpful to relieve burden of caregivers who is responsible to take care of schizophrenic diagnosed patients at the home. Furthermore, researching the caregivers in the period of diagnosis and treatment could be a guidance for the team of CMHC to support and understand difficulties and what caregivers going through in that period.