Abstract:
Caring for patients with mental disorders brings many challenges
for informal/unpaid carers, especially relatives. This article
provides a brief overview of the literature on caregivers’ experiences
in caring for a relative with mental illness. The areas identified and
discussed that may impact the caregivers include gender and
caregiver burden, patriarchy, gender differences in caregiving,
economic factors and policy frameworks in caregiving in different
African countries. The following databases were searched to
identify studies for the literature review: Google Scholar, Medline,
Pub Med and HINARI. Studies eligible for inclusion were all those
published in English about caregiving in Africa among families of
individuals with mental illness. Family caregivers were found to be
primarily females who experience the burden of caregiving. The
study concludes that the socioeconomic factors hurt the caregiving
process, with consequential negative health outcomes for family
caregivers.
