The effect of training interventions of stigma associated with mental illness on family caregivers: a quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND: Stigma is one of the most destructive features of mental illnesses that may affect the family caregivers. This study aimed to analyze the effect of training interventions of stigma on family caregivers of the mental illness patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This quasi-experimental pre- and post-test study was performed on a single group of 43 family caregivers of mental illness patients in Hamadan Psychiatric Hospital, Iran, in 2015. The samples were taken through convenience sampling method and the data collection tool was a stigma questionnaire made by the researchers. The questionnaires were filled by the participants within pre-intervention and 1-month post-intervention. All the data were analyzed by SPSS version 16, and the mean and standard deviation by paired t test and Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: Findings of this study demonstrated that women included 60% of the family caregivers. The average age of caregivers and the duration of caregiving were 41.67 ± 11.62 years and 66.28 ± 7.99 months, respectively. The mean and standard deviation for pre-intervention stigma score were 82.47 ± 12.23 indicating that the family caregivers suffered from some problems arisen from living with mental patients. They include not getting married, unable to find a job, embarrassment, humiliation by others, disgrace, and shame. Our results revealed that the mean and standard deviation of stigma score decreased to 29.28 ± 7.52 after training, and this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of present study, training interventions reduce the issues caused by stigma and help the family members of mental patients to face and cope with the problem.