Family centred care : views of mentally ill patients' relatives on hospital management of these patients.

Abstract

The study looked at views of mentally ill patients' relatives on hospital management of these patients. A review of literature on involvement of the family in nursing care has been included. The instrument used to obtain information from fifty relatives was a structured interview schedule. The respondents were randomly chosen during their visits. The interview gathered data about number of time that the patients had been admitted in Chainama Hospital, family's knowledge about the patients' illness and how often the family visited the patient. Relatives were asked if it was the duty of the hospital personnel alone to care for the hospitalized patients. It was discovered that more than fifty percent of the relatives did not know what the patients suffered from. This ignorance therefore increased the family's anxiety. Most relatives visited the patients every day and this was done because they loved the patients. Most patients felt that they had a major role to play in the management of the patients. They said that they knew the patients better. Some respondents are even willing to spend some hours with the patient so that together with the hospital personnel, they could monitor the patients' progress.