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Sud, D., Bradley, Eleanor 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5877-2298, Tritter, J. and Maidment, I.
(2023)
The impact of providing care for physical health in severe mental illness on informal carers: a qualitative study.
Research Square, Pre (Print).
pp. 1-17.
ISSN 2693-5015
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Abstract
Background
People with severe mental illness (SMI) e.g., schizophrenia are at a substantially higher risk of premature death, in that they die 10–20 years earlier than the general population. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes are the main potentially avoidable contributors to early death.
Aims
To explore the impacts of providing care for physical health in severe mental illness on informal carers.
Method
Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with eight informal carers of people with SMI in the UK national health services.
Results
Informal carers played an active part in the management of the patient’s conditions and shared their illness experience. Carers provided both emotional and practical involvement and informal carers’ own lives were affected in ways that were sometimes deeply profound. Informal carers were involved in both ‘looking after’ the patient from the perspective of doing practical tasks such as collecting dispensed medication from a community pharmacy (caring for) and managing feelings and emotions (caring about).
Conclusions
Caring for the physical health of someone with SMI can be understood as having two dimensions - 'caring for' and 'caring about'. There is a bidirectional relationship between these two dimensions, and both have a cost for the informal carer. With appropriate support informal carers could be more actively involved at all stages of care with an awareness that carers may minimise the information they share about their own needs and impacts of their role to spare the person they care and themselves any distress.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | A preprint is a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice. This article will be published in BMC Psychiatry as a peer reviewed article. The entry for this version is accessible here: https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/13967/ |
| Divisions: | Central Services > Directorate |
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| Copyright Info: | This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License |
| Depositing User: | Katherine Small |
| Date Deposited: | 31 May 2024 22:55 |
| Last Modified: | 31 May 2024 23:03 |
| URI: | https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13979 |
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