People living and caring for mentally ill patients are under considerable stress (Alpert & Fava, 2005). Mentally ill people can be a major burden to relatives who live and take care of them (Coon, 2005). However, the existing information regarding the feelings, thoughts and other social process occurring within a home-based care of the mentally ill people is limited
This study aims at discovering the experiences of the members of the family who live with the mentally ill relatives. Descriptive phenomenology will be used as the study method of choice.
Purpose of the study
The research aims at determining the impact of taking care of a mentally ill patient from the point of view of family members. It will not consider professional caregivers’ point of view. Descriptive phenomenology will be used as a way of discovering these family members’ experiences.
Key concepts
- Descriptive Phenomenology- a research method that attempts to discover the logics and truth about a phenomenon using critical and intuitive thinking about human nature (Jones, 2001).
- Mental health problems- a myriad of mental problems with characteristics of anxiety disorder, which occur after a person experiences a traumatic event (Vedentam, 2008).
- Traumatic event- experiencing, witnessing or meeting with some event (or events) that threaten a person with death or serious injury or threaten personal integrity on self or other people (Kazak, 2004).
- Trauma- individual ‘s psychological/mental response to a traumatic event (Hart, Nijenhuis, & Steele, 2005).
Research questions
- What is the experience of living with someone who has a mental illness?
- What evidence shows a significant relationship between ‘living with a mentally ill person in a home setting’ and a ‘negative mental experience among the family members?
Research methods
The proposed study will apply a qualitative methodology. The aim is to investigate the impact of living with mentally ill people on the members of the family (Moran, 2000).
The research will apply qualitative phenomenology in order to describe the phenomenon (the interaction between mentally ill people and members of their families) (Speziale, Streubert & Carpenter, 2007).
The study will use purposive sampling in which the participants will be randomly selected from a population of people living and taking care of their mentally ill relatives in New Zealand.
Data collection methods will involve one-on-one interviews. The researcher will use a set of questions developed and outlined prior to the data collection process (Miles, & Huberman, 1994).
Data analysis: phenomenological data analysis will involve coding, categorising and making sense of the essential meanings of the phenomenon (Pope & Mays, 2006).
References
Alpert, J., & Fava, M. (2005). Handbook of chronic depression: diagnosis and therapeutic management. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Coon, D. (2005). Psychology: a modular approach to mind and behaviour. CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E., & Steele, K. (2005). Dissociation: an insufficient recognized feature of complex PTSD. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18(5), 1-12.
Jones, A. (2001). A condensed history of the phenomenology: the first and second phases from Franz Brentano to Hans-Georg Gadamer. Nurse Researcher, 8(4), 65-65-75.
Kazak, A. (2004). Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in families of adolescent childhood cancer survivors. Journal of Paediatric Psychology. 29(3), 211-219.
Miles, M.B., & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis (2nded.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Moran, D. (2000). Introduction to phenomenology. London: Routledge.
Pope, C., & Mays, N. (2006).Qualitative methods in health research.
Speziale, H., Streubert, H., & Carpenter, D. (2007). Qualitative research in nursing. PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Vedantam, S. (2008).Most PTSD treatments not proven effective. Web.