Relatives’ Experiences of Mental Health Care, Family Burden and Family Stigma: Does Participation in Patient-Appointed Resource Group Assertive Community Treatment (RACT) Make a Difference?

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of relatives to persons with severe mental illness, with and without involvement in Resource Group Assertive Community Treatment (n = 139).

	Resource group
	Yes (n = 79)		No (n = 60)		p
Age (mean, SD)	64, 11.7		62, 13.3		0.31 ^a
	n	%	n	%
Female	53	67	44	73	0.54 ^b
Marital status
Married/partnership	54	68	46	77	0.40 ^b
Divorced	9	11	6	10	0.75 ^b
Widow/widower	9	11	3	5	0.19 ^b
Single	5	6	4	7	0.97 ^c
Swedish origin	75	95	53	88	0.21 ^c
Education > 12 years	50	63	36	60	0.69 ^c
Currently employed Relationship to the ill person	43	54	33	55	0.84 ^b
Parent	58	73	37	62	0.08 ^b
Sibling	8	10	11	18	0.18 ^b
Partner	5	6	8	13	0.18 ^b
Other relation	5	6	3	5	0.71 ^c
Lives together with the ill person	16	20	18	30	0.18
Spent time together with the ill person/week (mean, SD)	19, 27.3		22, 32.6		0.54 ^a

a t-test.

b Chi square test.

c Fisher’s exact test.

Table 2. The distribution of relatives’ response profile in the total group and subgroups with and without participation in resource group regarding experience of approach and subjective importance.

		Resource group
	The total group	Yes	No
Scales	Md (Q1, Q3)	(Md (Q1, Q3)	Md (Q1, Q3)		p-value^a
Experience of approach^b	n = 132 3 (3, 4)	n = 79 3 (3, 4)		n = 53 3 (2, 3)	0.002
Subjective importance ^c	n = 130 4 (3, 4)	n = 78 4 (3, 4)		n = 52 4 (3, 4)	N.S.

^aMann–Whitney test.

^bResponse categories: 1 (completely disagree), 2 (partly disagree), 3 (partly agree), and 4 (completely agree).

^cResponse categories: 1 (of no importance), 2 (of little importance), 3 (of great importance), and 4 (of the very highest importance).

Table 3. The distribution of the response profile for the total group and subgroups with and without resource group experiences regarding feeling of alienation.

		Resource group
Scale	The total group	Yes	No	p-value^a
	Md (Q1, Q3)	Md (Q1, Q3)	Md (Q1, Q3)
Feeling of alienation^b	n = 126 2 (1, 2)	n = 75 2 (1, 2)	n = 51 2 (2, 3)	0.008

^aMann–Whitney test.

^bResponse categories: 1 (completely disagree), 2 (partly disagree), 3 (partly agree), and 4 (completely agree).

Table 4. Family burden and stigma in relatives with and without resource group participation.

			Resource group
	Total, n = 139		Yes, n = 79		No, n = 60
	n	%	n	%	n	%	Χ ^2
Family burden ^a
He/she is sometimes as like an adult and sometimes like a child, n = 133	80	60.2	50	65.8	30	52.6	0.125
He/she rejects me, n = 138	50	36.2	26	33.3	24	40.0	0.419
I am afraid that he/she will hurt someone, n = 136	18	13.2	5	6.4	13	22.4	0.006
I am scared that that he/she will commit suicide, n = 136	44	32.4	22	28.6	22	37.3	0.282
Family stigma ^b
Has stigma affected the family’s ability to get and keep friends?, n = 121	22	18.2	13	18.1	9	18.4	0.965
Has stigma affected your ability to socialize with other relatives?, n = 128	40	31.3	23	30.3	17	32.7	0.771
Has stigma affected quality of life in the family?, n = 126	45	35.7	31	41.3	14	27.5	0.110
Do you try to avoid situations that may be stigmatizing for the family?, n = 128	46	35.9	27	36.5	19	35.2	0.880
Have you ever tried to reduce stigma by explaining and telling friends or relatives about mental illnesses?, n = 126	92	73.0	57	78.1	35	66.0	0.133

a BIRP: An item was considered to be endorsed if the response was sometimes, often, and always.

^bISE: An item was considered to be endorsed if the response was yes.