The experiences of providing caregiving for patients with schizophrenia in the Ghanaian context

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that is often characterized by significant distortions in thinking and perception, accompanied by the exhibition of inappropriate emotions (Zhai, Guo, Chen, Zhao, & Su, 2013). It alters one's perception of reality, often manifesting in the af fected individual to think and act in ways that are strange or abnormal. It is estimated that schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the global population (Fatemi, 2010). According to the World Health Or ganization (WHO), around 450 million people are suffering from a mental or behavioral disorder worldwide (WHO, 2003). Schizophrenia usually starts in late adolescence or early adulthood and follows a variable course, with complete symptomatic and social recovery in only one third of cases (Tandon, Keshavan, & Nasrallah, 2008). The impact of schizophrenia has multiple contexts. Awad and Voruganti (2012) classified the effect of schizophrenia at three levels: 1) the patient un dergoing personal suffering, 2) the caregiver and/or families experi encing the burden of care along with the added responsibility of tran sitioning the relative from inpatient to outpatient treatment, and 3) society due to the strain on the health care delivery system (e.g., fre quent hospitalizations), as well as long-term financial and psychosocial support. Globally, there has been a shift from institutionalized car egiving of patients with schizophrenia to informal caregiving primarily by family (Chan, 2011). Some of the positive outcomes of such a shift, as argued by Björkman and Hansson (2002), are reduced stigmatization and improved quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia.