Overload generated by the interaction with schizophrenia patients

nursing building family care

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic degenerative mental disease, in which the patient has difficulty in self care. Due to deinstitutionalization, the daily life brings burden to family. The goal here was to analyze the degree of overload of the primary caregiver living with the holder of schizophrenia in a psychiatric emergency hospital in the State of Rio de Janeiro. This is a descriptive research with quantitative approach. The participants were ten families in a period of fifteen days for data collection. We used the scale of burden of psychiatric patients' relatives, analyzed by the Likert scale. Overloads were found high in the familiar daily routine and intense shock of their mental health, being fundamental that nursing include families in treatment, reducing the overload.