Families operate as a system in which each family member's functions and roles affect every other member's functions and roles. Consequently, one family member's health problems affect all family members.
People with chronic mental disabilities cause...
Families operate as a system in which each family member's functions and roles affect every other member's functions and roles. Consequently, one family member's health problems affect all family members.
People with chronic mental disabilities cause other family members difficulties such as anxiety, stress, a feeling of burden, and so on. In South Korea, the deinstitutionalization movement in mental health in 1955 has resulted in the increasing burden on family caregivers of mentally ill persons.
Therefore, this study was designed to investigate how factors such as caregiver burden, locus of control, and community resource utilization interact with the family functions (family cohesion and family adaptability) of the mentally handicapped. The study concerned the families of clients with a DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition) diagnosis in seven mental hospitals and mental health services located in Seoul. Specifically, data for the study was gathered from a questionnaire administered to one main caregiver looking after persons diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mood disorder, or a personality disorder. Statistical tests used in this study were t-tests, ANOVA (analysis of variance), Pearson's correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression.
The major findings of the research are summarized as follows. The first finding concerns the question of whether the family functions of the mentally handicapped differ on sociodemographic variables. The two subordinate factors of family functions (cohesion and adaptability) differed significantly according to the education attainment of the caregiver. Furthermore, cohesion, but not adaptability, showed a significant difference regarding the presence or absence of family religion.
The second finding is about the relationship between caregiver burden, locus of control, and community resource utilization on the one hand and family functions on the other. Disruptions in the caregiver's life and disruptions in family interactions (subordinate factors of caregiver burden) were negatively correlated with cohesion. On the other hand, internal locus of control (a subordinate factor of locus of control), community resource utilization as a whole and its subordinate factors, i.e. rehabilitation services and social services, were positively correlated with cohesion. As for adaptability, community resource utilization as a whole and its subordinate factor, i.e. social services, were positively correlated with it.
The third finding concerns an investigation of how factors such as caregiver burden, locus of control, and community resource utilization interact with the family functions of the mentally handicapped. Factors affecting cohesion are disruptions in family interactions (a subordinate factor of caregiver burden), social services and caregiver's age (subordinate factors of community resource utilization), and external locus of control (a subordinate factor of locus of control) in order of priority. No factors were found to affect adaptability.
These findings have the following implications for social welfare practice. First, it is necessary to identify priorities in provision of social services which are required to meet the needs of the mentally handicapped as well as those of their caregivers. Second, efforts should be made to develop a program to provide social services to the families of the mentally handicapped, and to examine the effects influenced by such services. Third, in developing social services, it is advisable to exploit characteristics of those who would like to use them in the first place. Fourth, further studies are needed to identify factors that affect family functions. Finally, the present study leads to a comparative study of characteristics of caregivers for the mentally handicapped.