Effects of Psychosocial Intervention on Families with Individuals Facing Chronic Mental Health Issues

Abstract

The thesis focuses on effect of psychosocial interventions on families with individuals facing chronic mental health issues especially in The Gambia. Taking care of patients with mental disorders is stressful, and people who take care of these patients need to receive enough support and training to overcome this challenging situation. Therefore, including a close family member in psychosocial interventions for chronic mental illnesses is a logical treatment approach that can boost the effects of the intervention on the patient and benefit the family member. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants for this study. Data was collected in two phases that include qualitative and quantative. Qualitative approach that includes in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs). Qualitative inductive thematic analysis was used for this study. The qualitative data was then organised, and this process includes open coding, creating categories and abstraction. The quantitative review includes 84 participants from Kanifing General Hospital,mental health unit and demonstrated a beneficial effect of psycho social interventions for carers. Psychoeducation was widely used and the most evaluated intervention for carrers. 54.7% of the respondents strongly agree that psychosocial interventions make them better understand their patient conditions, 53.5 % strongly agree that it make them sociable, 35.7% strongly agree that it increases their quality of life, 50% strongly agree that it increase their coping strategies,59.5%Strongly agree that it increases their patient recovery, 40.4%Strongly agree that it help in control of patient symptoms. Psycho social interventions for carers are beneficial in helping to reduce negative outcomes and enhance positive outcomes. Future research could focus on exploring the impact of interventions on less evaluated outcomes such as depression and anxiety disorders. Integration of mental health and psychosocial support into the general health system.