Abstract:
How often do we find ourselves concentrating so much on treating a patient with schizophrenia
that we forget about the needs and difficulties of the family members who take care of that
patient? This article highlights the global and specific difficulties that families and caregivers
experience in having to care for chronically ill family members with schizophrenia with a
backdrop of continuing global deinstitutionalisation of such patients. Matters such as burden
and expressed emotion are explored, family-specific interventions are discussed and areas of
service delivery and resource inadequacies are identified.
