The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program on Mental Status and Care Burden of Psychotic Patients' Families

One of the chronic mental diseases, psychosis causes social and economic losses by negatively affecting the patient's feelings, thoughts and behaviors, interpersonal relations, work and social harmony, and the patient and family may experience different difficulties. With the transition to the community-based model in the provision of mental health services, the relatives of the patients have become the primary caregivers in the care of the patient and their responsibilities have increased even more.When the family is considered as a system, there is a constant interaction between the parts of the system and the change in the patient in case of illness can affect the whole family.When the disease occurs, one of the family members has to take care of the sick individual and caregivers experience emotional (decreased self-esteem, restlessness, depression, insomnia, social isolation, etc.), social (restriction of entertaining, relaxing and leisure time activities, reduction in the role of self-care, etc.). ) and economically (expenses not covered by social security creating an additional burden, reducing working hours, etc.). It is emphasized that psychosocial interventions for families increase the perception of social support, self-efficacy and satisfaction with treatment among caregivers, and reduce the perceived burden and recurrence of the disease.However, the high level of emotional expression and perceived stress of the families may trigger the recurrence of the disease. For this reason, family is naturally emphasized as an important factor in the recovery of the individual with a psychotic illness. Therefore, rehabilitation processes should be aimed not only at patients, but also towards caregivers. One of the interventions used for this purpose today is the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which is an evidence-based intervention that teaches skills to reduce stress and manage challenging emotions in a group setting. Although the MBSR intervention is usually aimed at people with chronic physical and mental illnesses, the purpose of the intervention is not to replace medical treatment, but can be used as a supplement, supportive, preventive, complementary or simply a stand-alone method to heal patients. In this respect, it is thought that it is important for psychiatric nurses to use the MBSR program, which is a complementary, supportive, preventive and protective program, in the protection and strengthening of mental health in family members who care for psychosis patients. When the literature is examined, it is emphasized that the MBSR program has positive effects on caregiver family members. In this context, this study is planned to determine the effect of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program on the state-trait anxiety, hopelessness, self-compassion and care burden of the families of psychotic patients.

Methods: In the study, 60 family members caring for an individual with psychotic illness were randomly assigned to the study and control groups. 11-week MBSR program will be apply to study group (n = 28). No intervention will be made to the control group (n = 28). The primary outcome of the study is the effect of MBSR on the state-trait anxiety, hopelessness, and self-compassion levels of caregiver family members. The secondary outcome of the study is the effect of MBSR on the caregiving burden of family members. Data will be collected pre-intervention, post-intervention, 3 and 6 months after the intervention.