The Effects of Empowerment Program on Caring Burden for Caregivers of Persons with Schizophrenia

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research aimed to study the effects of empowerment program on caring burden for caregivers of persons with schizophrenia. A sample of 20 caregivers were purposively recruited according to the criteria: (1) aged between 20-60 years, (2) be the primary caregiver who has been continuously taking care of the patients for more than 2 years, (3) did not get any compensation, wages or rewards, (4) resided in Nakhonsawan Province, (5) willing to collaborate and voluntarily participate in the research project, and (6) the burden assessment scores of the caregivers of the schizophrenia patients were at a moderate to a high level. The research instrument included the empowerment program, developed by the researcher in which consisted of 6 activities: (1) relationship building (2) exchange experiences about the disease and caring for the schizophrenic (3) foster empowerment on caring of the schizophrenia patients (4) exchange experiences in caring of the schizophrenia patients (5) strengthen self-confidence on continuous caring of the schizophrenia patients, and (6) summary of group activities. Date were collected using: (1) caregivers’ demographic data questionnaire, (2) caring burden questionnaire of caregivers of the schizophrenia patients, and (3) the schizophrenic caregivers’ empowerment program. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test.

 The results showed that the average caregiving burden scores of caregivers of the schizophrenia patients after entering the developed empowerment program was lower than before entering the developed empowerment program at statistically significant level of .001.