Pawadee Hamtanon. Caregiving demands of schizophrenic patients, caring behaviors of family caregivers at home and the outcomes . Master's Degree(Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2003.
Caregiving demands of schizophrenic patients, caring behaviors of family caregivers at home and the outcomes
Abstract:
A survey research design, the present study aimed to investigate the caregiving demands of schizophrenic patients upon family caregivers at home, the caring behaviors of family caregivers and the outcomes of such caregiving. The subjects were 50 primary caregivers who were providing home care to schizophrenic patients
receiving pharmacological therapy from the Outpatient Clinic of the Psychiatry Department, Maharaj Hospital, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. The instrument was an interview following a structured questionnaire about caring behaviors in response to the patients caregiving demands. This was developed by the researcher, based on
general human needs, the needs of schizophrenic patients, and the caring behaviors of caregivers, combined with the results form an earlier pilot study on caring for patients with schizophrenia, which was also conducted by the researcher. Data analysis was performed using the quantitative content analysis method. The findings were as follows: 1) the caregiving demands of patients with schizophrenia upon family caregivers at home were: most patients made caregiving demands related to their psychosocial needs, complied with a treatment plan, and displayed psychotic symptoms and inappropriate behaviors; few patients made caregiving demands related to their physical needs, or showed any side effects of antipsychotic drugs; 2) the caring behaviors of family caregivers were: 2.1) total care; 2.2) partial care, including encouraging, inviting the patient to participate in activities, acting as a model, giving advice and information, giving support, monitoring, giving negative reinforcement, ignoring abnormal behaviors, and using firm strict rules to control the patients behavior; 3) the caring outcomes were complete response, partial
response, and no response to the care giving demands. The results strongly indicate that the healthcare service in Thailand should provide complete discharge planning which should also be consistently and continuously provided when the patients return to live in the community, not just when they are hospitalized. There should be a considerable increase in sources of support for family caregivers, either from the family, the community or from government-run organizations"