Multidimensional impact of mental illness on tribal families in India

Abstract

Background: Mental illness and burden of care on family is widely discussed in the context of the general population. However, mental health in tribal people also needs the same attention from researchers. In this study, the authors intended to find out the effect of mental illness on tribal families having a person with mental illness. Methods: A descriptive study was done to collect data at the Ispat General Hospital from 50 tribal respondents who were admitted to the Department of Psychiatry. We used open-ended questions to collect the qualitative data. Then, we did content analysis to build themes of the issues of their mental illnesses. Results: We found that the effect of mental illness is on education, marriage, financial crisis, family stress, disruption of family routine activities, physical abuse and violence in the family, social isolation, lack of caregiver's personal care and care for other children in the family, as well as damage to household accessories. Conclusion: In this study, the authors created major themes, to dissect and trisect into adverse events, which were frequent and appear the same in the general and tribal family having a patient with mental illness.