Comparison of Caregiver Burden Before and After Implementation of Caregiver Support Guidelines Among Caregivers of Psychiatric Inpatients at Bandan Hospital

Abstract

Background: Psychiatric patients needed the caregivers to take care them all times, that lead caregivers to burden. The researcher recognized that caregivers were important person, so this studied were assessed caregiver burden and developed caregiver care guidelines for decreasing burden of caregivers.
Objective: To compare the caregiver burden before and after using the caregiver care guidelines among caregivers of psychiatric inpatients of Bandan hospital, and to assess the caregivers satisfaction.
Methods: This preliminary experimental study with a sample group consisting of caregivers who take care the psychiatric inpatients more than 8 hours/day. Data were collected by the sample of 35 caregivers using a three-part questionnaire (general information, assessment of caregiver burden using the Zarit interview with 11 items before and after using the caregiver care guideline, and a satisfaction questionnaire). Analyze the data using descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics, including dependent t-test.
Results: The caregivers were mostly female (74.3%). The average age is 51.8 years (ranging from 24 to 84 years). Most of them have an elementary school education, and their monthly income were mostly between 2,001 and 5,000 baht. The most common relationship between patients and caregivers were father or mother, and most caregivers were supported by the other sources. They found that caregiver burden scores were decreased after using the caregiver care guidelines, the average score before using guideline were 16.5 (SD. = 3.60) and after using that were decreased to 8.2 (SD. = 1.66) (t=14.01 p-value= 0.00). So caregiver burden were reduced significantly and highly satisfaction score of caregiver care guideline (average score of 4.3).
Conclusions: Comparing the results of caregiver burden score before and after using the caregiver care guideline were decreased significantly and highly the overall satisfaction when using that guideline too.