Caregivers of children and adolescents with mental disorders: social, family and sexual changes

Abstract

The process of psychiatric deinstitutionalization led families to become the main caregivers of patients. This changed how the family participates in the care for the mentally ill, but the difficulties faced when performing the caregiving role contributed to changes in their lives. This research sought to find what changes occur in the social, family and sexual aspects of caregivers of children and adolescents with mental disorders attended at a Psychosocial Care Center. The participants were 64 caregivers of children and adolescents with mental disorders who attend one of these centers. Data from samples were obtained through a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using the software Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The results show that caregivers of a child or adolescent with a mental disorder have their lives impacted on social, marital and sexual aspects, noting that 85.9% of caregivers left their job to care for the child or adolescent; only 34.4% have leisure, 81.3% had changes in their marriage and, for the most part, 98.1%, to worse, and 31.3% do not have sex. From this analysis, it can be concluded that this population deserves more attention from public policies and from society, and that the results of this study may influence the adequacy of mental health services, since the health of children and adolescents depends on the health of the caregiver.