Mental Healthcare Consumers’ Experiences of Mental Health Care: Variation in Knowledge by the Family Members and Support

Abstract

Introduction Knowledge and support by members of the family towards the care of the consumers of mental health services is the core priority and is noticeable by the users as it gives and eases the life of the users during therapy and rehabilitation. However, there have been documented instances of families that neglect their relatives with mental illnesses. Objective This study explored the experiences of mental healthcare consumers regarding family members’ knowledge of mental disorders and support. Methods Participants who were granted leave of absence were selected through nonprobability, purposive sampling. Data were collected using face-to-face unstructured discussions. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's technique. Results Findings revealed misconceptions versus insight on the cause of mental disorders, knowledge deficit on the effect of treatment, poor support from family members, financial challenges perceived as a source of poor support, and lack of psychological support and its consequences. Mental healthcare consumers verbalized limited support from family members. They reported variation in terms of family members' knowledge of their mental condition. Conclusion Training family members on mental health illness is critical to the future of health care as there will be no misunderstanding between them and the consumers of mental health care. Healthcare consumers’ feelings of sadness and anxiety could be avoided by avoiding conflicts over their social grants. The government should invest in assisting family members of mental healthcare consumers.