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Quality of Life and Social Isolation Among Caregivers of Adults with Schizophrenia: Policy and Outcomes

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Abstract

Services have been increasingly directed at supporting carers of people living with mental illness but it is difficult to evaluate the impact of service change where benchmarks for carer functioning are sparse. Sixty Australian carers were assessed regarding their quality of life, psychological distress, social isolation and caregiving experience. Their scores were compared with two matched community samples and previous studies. Carers were ten times more likely to be socially isolated and quality of life was significantly less than matched community samples. Over 40 % of the carer sample met criteria for probable psychiatric disorder. Comparison of caregiving experiences with a study 15 years ago showed no improvement in negative caregiving experiences. Carers still face considerable challenges to their wellbeing as they support people living with mental illness, in spite of progress in the development of policy and services.

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Acknowledgments

Sadly, our colleague Associate Professor Graeme Hawthorne passed away in 2014 and we would like to acknowledge his contribution to this paper and to the Building Family Skills Together Research Group. We would also like to acknowledge the William Buckland Foundation for their support of this research and the contributions of the other Building Family Skills Together Research Group members, Assoc Prof Amaryll Perlesz and Dr Peter McKenzie and Family WorkNet members, Jenny Burger and Dr Margaret Leggatt. A special thank you is extended to the consumers and carers who generously contributed their time and expertise to the research and shared their experiences with honesty, integrity and dignity and their case managers who assisted with recruitment.

Conflict of interest

None.

Ethical standard

The research presented in this article has been approved by the relevant ethics committee and conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (1995, revised Edinburgh, 2000). All participants in the research gave informed consent and patient anonymity has been preserved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Psychosocial Research Centre, University of Melbourne, 130 Bell St., Coburg, VIC, 3058, Australia

    Laura Hayes & Carol Harvey

  2. Formerly Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Graeme Hawthorne

  3. School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    John Farhall

  4. North Western Mental Health, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    John Farhall

  5. Faculty of Health Sciences, The Bouverie Centre, La Trobe University, Brunswick, VIC, Australia

    Brendan O’Hanlon

  6. North West Area Mental Health Service, Coburg, VIC, Australia

    Carol Harvey

Authors
  1. Laura Hayes
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  2. Graeme Hawthorne
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  3. John Farhall
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  4. Brendan O’Hanlon
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  5. Carol Harvey
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Correspondence to Laura Hayes.

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Hayes, L., Hawthorne, G., Farhall, J. et al. Quality of Life and Social Isolation Among Caregivers of Adults with Schizophrenia: Policy and Outcomes. Community Ment Health J 51, 591–597 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9848-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9848-6

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