The Family Burden of Care for Persons With Substance Use Disorders: a Case of Rehabilitation Centers in Nairobi County

Abstract

Introduction: Substance use disorder (SUD) is a family disease and its presence in one family member has enormous impact on the whole family with the greatest burden being bone by the primary caregiver. Pressure on family caregiver increase especially when he/she is forced to assume some of the responsibilities of the affected family member. Kenyan studies on the same are scarce. Study objective: The study aimed to find out the psychological, economic and social burden bone by family care giver of persons suffering from substance use disorders (SUD) admitted in rehabilitation centers in Nairobi County. Method: The study used cross sectional design, and targeted the primary family caregivers whose relatives have been admitted in rehabilitation centers in Nairobi county. Simple random sampling was used to get 187 study participants with patients recovering in 4 rehabilitation centers. The study instruments used in the study were, a researcher designed sociodemographic questionnaire, General Health Questionnaire(GHQ) and Care Giver Burden Scale(CGBS). Data was analysed using SPSS version 23. Findings: The study recruited 187 participants. There were more females caregivers than male caregivers. The Caregiver burden scale mean scores of the respondents was 48.98 (SD 12.35). the median was 49 and the mode was 49. The prevalence of caregiver burden was 91.4%. 89.8% (168) of the respondents felt that SUD treatment of the addict had affected the family’s finances. Eighty-nine point three percent (89.3% (167)) of them indicated that the addicts’ problem had caused social problems like tension within the family. The GHQ determined that 24.6% (46), were having psychological concerns or were at risk of developing psychological problems. Gender was the only socio-demographic variable that was highly associated with psychological health at (X2=7.368, df=1 and p=0.007). Conclusion: The study concludes that caregiving is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. The study also concludes that more females than males’ caregivers are usually affected and that other factors such as income, level of education could impact how one views their level of caregiver burden. The study also concludes that psychological wellness is a major predictor of caregiver burden.