More than one third of the relatives were
dissatisfied with the mental health services, and only one third
considered themselves sufficiently participating in the care of
the ill relative. Every second relative needed support and care,
but an appreciably fewer number received this help.
 Half
of relatives did not allow themselves to have spare time interests,
and one fifth gave up their own work partly, or stopped working
at various occasions. An even larger number of relatives felt isolated
and prevented from having relations with other people. Fifty percent
contracted such serious own psychical and social problems that they
needed help themselves, but only one third of this group felt that
they received any help. Relatives describe their problems as for
instance constant sleep disturbances, stomach pains, or depression.
The group of relatives with their own mental symptoms feel the least
participation in the care, and these individuals also bear the heaviest
social and psychological burden.
The grown-up children who had to give up
an education or other personal interests in order to help their
ill parents were the most discontented group. The grown-up children
were also the subgroup of relatives that participated least in care,
from which they were excluded. The children are perhaps the most
invisible group among the relatives within psychiatry, although
they constitute a large number. Between 80 000 and 100 000 children
in Sweden have a parent with a severe mental disorder. More than
half of the children are in extra need of support, but only 50 percent
have received such support, according to the relatives. Studies
in other countries have shown that as many as 70-90 percent of the
children of parents who need institutional care have their own psychological
symptoms. These children run an especially high risk of being afflicted
with mental disturbances themselves, since they often also carry
a hereditary burden. Therefore they should receive help as early
as possible..
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