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May 23-24, 2019 | Vienna, Austria
Nursing Care
28
th
International Conference on
Journal of Intensive and Critical Care Nursing | Volume 2
J Intensive Crit Care Nurs, Volume 2
Meeting the needs of caregivers of patients with a severe mental illness
Zegwaard MI, M Aartsen, M Grypdonck
and
P Cuijpers
Altrecht Mental Health, The Netherlands
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
C
entral in the presentation is the support of caregivers of
persons with severemental illness (SMI) by mental health
nurses. Due to the policy of deinstitutionalization a growing
number of people with SMI live in the community and rely
on families and others for support. A substantial amount of
literature shows that these caregivers suffer from increased
psychological distress and incur a greater risk of developing
a mental illness themselves–especially- depression and
anxiety disorders. These caregivers also have more stress-
related physical health problems. They need support in
learning ways to handle the impact of the SMI on their lives
and their wellbeing. In daily practice mental health care
nurses witness the impact of SMI on the daily lives of the
client and the caregiver. Due to for instance role ambiguity
and uncertainty about their own skills mental health nurses
hesitate to support these caregivers. In the presentation the
usefulness and necessity of caregiver support is discussed.
A recently developed evidence-based nurse-led caregiver
support intervention is presented as an example of a sound
structure supporting mental health nurses in their support of
these caregivers.
e
:
m.zegwaard@altrecht.nl