Burden among Family Caregivers of the Psychiatric Patients with Visiting Nursing Services in Japan

Objective: To evaluate burden among caregivers of psychiatric patients with home-visiting nursing services. Subjects and method: The data includes 39 pairs of psychiatric patients and their caregivers, and 37 pairs of the frail elderly and their caregivers, who received regular nurse visits in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Caregivers answered a self-administered questionnaire about various factors that may affect their care-burden, and also completed the Zarit careburden interview (ZBI). This study was approved by the Ethical Committees of St. Mary's College. Results: Compared with their counterparts, caregivers of psychiatric patients felt less burdened. Compared with the frail elderly, psychiatric patients were younger and had less disabled physical activity. Compared with the controls, caregivers of psychiatric patients spent less time not only on helping their patients perform daily activities, but also on looking after their patients in their daily lives. More psychiatric patients used day-time respite care than the frail elderly while smaller proportion of psychiatric patients used respite care than their counterparts. Conclusion: The result of the present study suggests that day-time respite care may reduce caregiver's burden by reducing physical care time and watching time among the caregivers of psychiatric patients.