Abstract:
Background
It is estimated that world-wide up to 20% of children suffer from debilitating mental
illness. Mental disorder that pose a significant concern include learning disorders,
hyperkinetic disorders "{ ADHD} , depression, psychosis, pervasive development
disorder, attachment disorders, anxiety disorders, conduct disorder/anti-social
personality, substance abuse and eating disorder. Living with such children can be very
stressful for care givers in the family. Caregivers, parents and guardian play an important
role in helping children grow to their full potential. Therefore, determination of
challenges of living with these children is important in the process of finding ways of
helping or supporting care givers to provide proper care for their children
Hospital.
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Results
The study revealed psychological, social, and economic challenges care givers endure
while living with mentally ill children. Psychological and emotional challenges included
being stressed by caring tasks, having worries about the present and future life of their
children. They had feelings of sadness, and inner pain or bitterness due to the disturbing
behaviour of the children. They also experienced communication problems with their
child due to the child's inability to talk. Social challenges were inadequate social services
for their children, stigma, burden of caring task, lack of public awareness of mental
illness, lack of social support, and problems with social life. The economic challenges
were poverty, child care interfering with various income generating activities in the
family, and extra expenses associated with the child's illness.
Conclusion and recommendations
Caregivers of mentally ill children expenence vanous psychological, social, and
economic challenges. Professional assistance, public awareness of mental illnesses in
children, social support by the government, private sector and NGOs are important in
addressing these challenges. This can be done through hospital and community programs
so that care givers receive the support they need in caring for mentally ill children.
More research is needed in order to understand the issues of sharing the burden of care in
families of mentally ill children. Also exploring challenges caregivers experience in
relation to health care services for their children is important due to concerns they raised
about the care they received.
