IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v65y2019i7-8p589-602.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explanatory models of mental illness among family caregivers of persons in psychiatric rehabilitation services: A pilot study

Author

Listed:
  • Manila Mathews
  • Poornima Bhola
  • Hesi Herbert
  • Santosh K Chaturvedi

Abstract

Background: Understanding the explanatory models of family caregivers is particularly important in interdependent contexts like India, where they often play a significant role in the help-seeking behaviours, treatment decision-making and long-term care of those diagnosed with mental illness. Aims: This study was planned to explore the diversity of explanatory models among family caregivers at a centre for recovery-oriented rehabilitation services in South India. Methods: The sample for this study included 60 family caregivers of patients referred to Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services within a tertiary-care hospital for mental health and neurosciences. Bart’s Explanatory Model Inventory, including a semi-structured interview and a checklist, assessed the family caregivers’ explanatory model of distress on five domains: identity, cause, timeline, consequences and control/cure/treatment. Results: The results indicated the coexistence of multiple causal explanatory models including psychosocial, supernatural, situational and behavioural contributors. While 36.7% of the caregivers displayed two explanatory models, 33.3% of the caregivers held three explanatory models and 16.6% of the caregivers endorsed four explanatory models. Caregivers shared their concerns about varied consequences of mental illness but less than half of them were aware of the name of the psychiatric disorder. While they accessed various forms of treatments and adjunctive supports such as prayer, medication was the most frequently used treatment method. Conclusions: The findings have implications for collaborative goal setting in recovery-oriented services for persons with mental illness and their families.

Suggested Citation

  • Manila Mathews & Poornima Bhola & Hesi Herbert & Santosh K Chaturvedi, 2019. "Explanatory models of mental illness among family caregivers of persons in psychiatric rehabilitation services: A pilot study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(7-8), pages 589-602, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:65:y:2019:i:7-8:p:589-602
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764019866228
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764019866228
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764019866228?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weiss, Mitchell G. & Desai, Amit & Jadhav, Sushrut & Gupta, Lalit & Channabasavanna, S.M. & Doongaji, D.R. & Behere, Prakash B., 1988. "Humoral concepts of mental illness in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 471-477, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. R.K. Chadda & Vivek Agarwal & Megha Chandra Singh & Deepak Raheja, 2001. "Help Seeking Behaviour of Psychiatric Patients Before Seeking Care At a Mental Hospital," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 47(4), pages 71-78, December.
    2. Josefine Antoniades & Danielle Mazza & Bianca Brijnath, 2017. "Becoming a patient-illness representations of depression of Anglo-Australian and Sri Lankan patients through the lens of Leventhal’s illness representational model," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 63(7), pages 569-579, November.
    3. Wilcox, Claire E. & Washburn, Rachel & Patel, Vikram, 2007. "Seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in developing countries: A study of parental explanatory models in Goa, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 1600-1610, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:65:y:2019:i:7-8:p:589-602. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.