Service providers’ perspectives on the challenges of informal caregiving and the need for caregiver-orientated mental health services in rural South Africa: A descriptive study

Informal caregivers of persons with mental disorders encounter various challenges in their role of caregiving. As such, they require support to enable them to cope with the demands of their caregiving. There is comprehensive evidence on the experiences of burden among informal caregivers in mental health; however, there is a limited number of studies that report on the mental health services aimed specifically at supporting informal caregivers in their role. To address this gap, this study aimed to explore the perspectives of the service providers regarding the challenges encountered by informal caregivers and the mental health services available to support these caregivers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with mental health coordinators at provincial, district, and sub-district level and mental health professionals from a district hospital. Focus group discussions were conducted with primary healthcare supervisors and community health workers in Bushbuckridge municipality, South Africa at participants' workplaces and sub-district offices. Semi-structured interviews and focus group guides with semi-structured questions were used to direct data collection in August 2022-January 2023. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Reflexive thematic inductive analysis was conducted using NVivo 12 software. Three themes were identified, namely perceived caregiving consequences and related factors, current state of mental health services, and factors affecting delivery of informal caregiver mental health services. The service providers acknowledged the negative consequences faced by informal caregivers. This includes the experience of caregiver burden which was attributed to the uncooperative and violent behaviours exhibited by the mental health care users. The current state of formal and informal community mental health services was described and considered inadequate to meet informal caregivers' needs. Various personal, health system, and contextual factors influencing the provision of caregiver-orientated services were identified. The findings revealed the need for intersectoral collaborations between hospital-based and community-based mental health service providers, and community stakeholders to ensure provision of user-friendly and accessible mental health services for informal caregivers.