Serious mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, can wreak havoc not just on the person afflicted but also on their loved ones, families, friends, colleagues, and even neighbourhood. We keep hearing that there is hope with proper care. Yet, access to such care remains a challenge for many.
In addition to the lack of awareness and the stigma surrounding mental health, the global shortage of mental health professionals exacerbates the problem. For families dealing with such conditions, this situation presents many challenges. Interacting with over three hundred such families, we have identified the following key challenges.
1. Convincing the person to visit a doctor and start treatment
Often people with serious mental health conditions such as schizophrenia do not accept that they have any condition. While it seems rather obvious to their loved ones that they are suffering, they themselves feel no need to visit a mental health professional and seek help. It becomes very challenging especially when the situation is coupled with aggressive behaviour and violent or self harming tendencies.
2. Finding trusted local and/or online mental health professionals
The next challenge is finding a trusted professional in the local area. Or even online. Sometimes a professional’s help can be instrumental in convincing the person to seek treatment or help. But not knowing who to trust causes more difficulties when clinics all around seem to be yet another money-making business.
3. Managing violence in the home
One of the biggest challenges for families with serious mental health condition is violence at home. It may not happen in every case, but when it does, it creates extreme tension in the families. Sometimes it’s part of the condition itself and the perpetrator is the person living with the mental health condition. Other times, it’s the family members who cannot comprehend the person’s condition and react with aggression/violence in difficult situations. Often enough it’s both.
4. Understanding the impact of medicines
With anti-psychotic medicines on cards and experiencing their side effects, an obvious question that bothers people is the long lasting impact of these medicines on their body and physical health.
5. Managing legalities
Learning about the legal rules and procedures becomes an additional hassle when you’re already navigating a mental health condition. These could be country specific, but often revolve around getting mental health related rights including financial benefits, setting up guardianships which could be helpful in protecting the person when they are unable to make sound decisions themselves and managing touch situations specially when violence is involved.
6. Finding a trusted long-term care facility
Sometimes families are not even aware that there are long-term care facilities available for the kind of help they need! There may not be enough such facilities, but they exist and they have been super helpful to a lot of people. There are different kinds of residential care facilities such as day-care facilities, rented apartments with trained professionals and emergency aid, rehabilitation centres, hospitals with in-patient facilities and more. Knowing that these exist and finding the trusted ones among them to avail their services is another tricky topic that people often struggle with.
7. Planning finances to ensure care after the primary caregiver is no longer available
This is the thought that worries most family members directly involved in helping the person with the condition- what would happen after them? It’s rather difficult to take out time and learn financing in order to make sound plans for future, when you have so many pressing issues at hand.
8. Finding ways to encourage the person to be more active in life
Often, people on antipsychotic medication find themselves sleeping most of the time and not engaging in significant activities. This makes them and their loved ones wonder how they could be helped to live a more meaningful life instead of just vegetating.
9. Exploring ways to engage the person with a suitable employment
Finding employment for individuals with schizophrenia can be challenging due to stigma and discrimination from potential employers. Moreover, the lack of motivation, as mentioned above, often leads to very little effort by individuals in seeking gainful employment. At the end of the day, it’s not only about earning a living, but the lack of employment becomes a source of demotivation, depression, and a feeling of worthlessness for the affected person, compounding their existing condition.
10. Hope
A debilitating question that comes to mind when we or a loved one is diagnosed with a serious mental health condition is, “Is there any hope?” The question engulfs our initial thought process, making us wonder whether the affected person would ever be able to live a normal life again, whether they would need to take medicines forever, and whether they would be able to accomplish personal goals in life.
Managing serious mental health conditions can be a challenging task. However, with proper care and support, it is possible to manage the condition and live a good quality life. By addressing the concerns mentioned above and seeking professional help, families can provide the necessary care and support.
In the following posts, we’ll cover each of these concerns in detail and explore potential solutions. If you’d like to add more concerns you are seeking help with or simply share your thoughts, please let us know in the comments.
Stay tuned!
