Interviewees and respondents to the survey reported a range of sometimes profound consequences to assuming a caring role in a forensic context; these effects could relate to their relationship with their relative, relations with services, or the effects of stigma. \u00a0For many, this had implications for their personal sense of well-being and resulted in, at different times, experiencing a variety of intense emotions including, variously, sadness, searing grief, frustration, anger, shame, fear, and anxiety.<\/p>\n
At times, carers reflected upon deeper effects of an almost existential nature, impacting at some essential level on their sense of self. \u00a0For some individuals, caring was viewed as such an implicit part of their life that the personal consequences were not always at the forefront of their thinking, revealing a tendency to minimise impact on occasion:<\/p>\n
I would probably, my first reaction would be to say, that it hasn\u2019t. And the reason I would say it hasn\u2019t is, she is my sister, and I\u2019ve always done it. So that\u2019s why I would say, no, it hasn\u2019t impacted. On the flipside – my God, it\u2019s impacted greatly. You know, my husband, kids, my job \u2013 it affects everything. \u00a0(sister)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
However, for many, there was a common theme around the all-consuming, life-changing role of being a carer \u2013 \u2018it changed my life\u2019.\u00a0 Typically, forensic carers identified stress and strain as profound and life-changing effects of the caring role:<\/p>\n
I had one episode where I had an anaphylactic shock which I was absolutely sure it was related to high stress, yeah so absolutely, sleepless nights yeah. (mother)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Increased stress had physical consequences such as reduced resistance to illness:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s made me really ill cause I\u2019m never out the doctors surgery, and I take like this cold, is the mother and father of all colds I\u2019ve ever had you know, it\u2019s just been flooring me. (partner)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
One carer identified the long term impact of caring on her mother:<\/p>\n
Obviously as she\u2019s got older, the stress levels, mum actually suffered a stroke a few months ago, I don\u2019t think you could pinpoint it to anything in particular, but obviously\u00a0 her ability to deal with things as well as she did 25 years ago is lessened. (sister)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Another identified the insidious wear and tear of dealing with stress over the years, including having been a carer for many years prior to her relative\u2019s admission to forensic mental health services, the stress of interacting with mental health services, such as, in this instance, dealing with medical staff:<\/p>\n
\u00a0The downside is that it\u2019s wear and tear on yourself, it\u2019s pretty stressful trying to maintain that without\u2026 and keeping calm so I think calm probably did go out of the window a few times, but that whole… because of just the whole journey that I have had and yeah it\u2019s been hard fighting with doctors and getting… having to run back and forwards trying to get medicine for him, it just… aye wear and tear and just kind of just brings you down… (mother)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In addition to the impact on their physical health, carers also identified mental health issues:<\/p>\n
I think I have found it at times challenging because it\u2019s affected my own mental health a wee bit, apart from that it\u2019s been\u2026 the whole experience of it, the whole yeah experience of it, meeting my partner has been good and I\u2019ve got better through it and I hope and I think he has too so… (wife)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Indeed, some forensic carers took on the caring role at a time when they were already under treatment for mental health problems of their own, rendering them more vulnerable to stress, complicating their own potential for recovery, and indicating particular support needs.\u00a0 They did not always identify mental health issues directly but outlined the compound impact to their well-being and wider life:<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t move on with my life, I feel like I\u2019m stuck, I mean my job, I go to work but I don\u2019t enjoy it and I can\u2019t wait till the day is over, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s because with my son or what but yeah I think it\u2019s changed me as a person, I haven\u2019t got any desires to go on holidays and do things, I feel I\u2019ve changed quite a bit really… (mother)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Difficulties coping with their relative\u2019s illness or challenging behaviour also had a financial impact, including on the ability to work effectively or maintain themselves in employment:<\/p>\n
I\u2019d been considering working part time so that\u2019s partly down to why I now work part time because well about 16 years of that is just probably taking its toll. (mother)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For others, however, work offered some degree of \u2018distraction\u2019 or relief from the stress of caring or dealing with powerful emotions:<\/p>\n
At one point I was almost overwhelmed by stress but what kept me going was my work. I couldn\u2019t bear the thought of being at home and thinking about [name] all day. I felt dreadful guilt at that time. Felt I had failed in her upbringing in some way and caused the illness. (mother)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There was a seeming inconsistency in responses to the carer survey between qualitative information confirming a litany of negative health effects (with only two out of 56 free responses stating no such impact), and the quantitative data reporting a sense of good health.\u00a0 In this regard, 62% of survey respondents rated their physical health as good or excellent, yet 20% declared a disability, including a number of quite serious chronic physical illnesses.<\/p>\n
The qualitative responses articulate some carers\u2019 view that some of these chronic conditions may have been brought on or exacerbated by the caring role. \u00a0That one respondent could report that this \u2018was just part of life\u2019, might reflect the stoicism of the caring role, as well as the difficulty in drawing causal links between caring and ill health.<\/p>\n
A few carers went on to point out factors that helped mitigate stress. Some found family and friends supportive, while others found it helpful to be able to share the responsibility of care:<\/p>\n
\u2026probably because we are quite a close family, and if I\u2019m really tied up with something, you know, at this stage in my life, I\u2019ll say to my older sister \u2018can you make sure you\u2019re there for [name], can you phone her, can you do this.\u2019 And my mum as well. The fact we\u2019ve each got some buffers wi each other and wi her, support for each other, I suppose that lessens the impact… (sister)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Despite all the stress and strain described, carers could identify personal growth from the experience:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s made me more understanding of what other people have got to put up with, more empathetic to other folk you know.\u00a0 A lot of things I took for granted a lot of the time like when I was single.(mother)<\/p>\n
It has been positive to look after someone else and I have got to know them better because of this. (survey respondent)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Impact of caring for someone in forensic mental health services Interviewees and respondents to the survey reported a range of sometimes profound consequences to assuming a caring role in a forensic context; these effects could relate to their relationship with their relative, relations with services, or the effects of stigma. \u00a0For many, this had implications … Continue reading Impact of caring<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":114,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}