Care & Support of the Mentally Distressed

This report highlights our experience of working with mental health carers, focusing the importance of widening the global mental health agenda to include local carers’ voices, greater government investment in mental health with social protection schemes for carers, flexible paid employment arrangements, and innovative mental health care actions.

Chhahari Nepal for Mental Health promotes a holistic person-centered approach to support men and women mentally distressed found on the street and disconnected from their family. Through establishing relationships with the mentally distressed person and their carers, this opens up the opportunity to support stigmatized families to regain confidence and dignity to negotiate through complex relationships amid economic constraint.

We have been building up on providing support to mentally ill people and their carers. From our experience we have realized that it is essential to have a carers support group for awareness and guidance whilst they themselves support mentally ill person/s. We have been providing a monthly carer’s workshop sessions. These workshops allow friends, family members and other carers the opportunity to meet others. The carers have found it comforting to know that other people have had similar experiences

We are gathering evidence from the day-to-day realities of mental health carers,  with very low income (between 39 Dollars and 49 Dollars). The financial and social challenges that carers face in the absence of government mental health services and social protection provisions is huge. They struggle to manage the complex dynamics within the family and community together with the irregular behaviour that can arise as a consequence of mental illness. Also there is a perspective of men and women as mental health carers, including societal gender expectations, discrimination and stigma.

The caring role presents competing demands to juggle the unpredictability of the caring role with the responsibility to earn. There is a lot of stigma and exclusion carers may face as they try to balance their unpaid care roles with paid work to make a living.

Example of a young woman’s journey of economic survival and caring:  

Sister, a young woman, cares for her physically disabled mother and brother with severe mental health problems. Father left the family home and has remarried. Brother has lived on the street for seven years, any close contact with him is difficult. Daily, she takes food to a place he knows. Delight comes when she can see him. The challenge remains to initiate brother’s treatment. Sister left education to care for the family then found paid work as a waitress. Juggling her paid work and being a carer is stressful. Sister participates in the carers’ support group and with this support she’s gained confidence and returned to education. A sponsor provides financial assistance for the family and sister’s education. Sister will be the long-term carer for mother and brother and with better education paid work opportunities will improve.

 A briefing paper highlighting our work with the carers is published online on http://www.ids.ac.uk/publication/the-global-importance-of-including-mental-health-carers-in-policy