DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2015.v03i01.020

Pages: 144-152

Caregiving is a complex task that may affect physical as well as mental health. Without proper supervision and skills, caregiving may become burden for some for the healthcare systems. The current paper made an attempt to uncover the respective roles of different cancers and stages variation of cancers on the mental health of the caregivers in terms of psychological distress (burden and burnout) and the coping strategies (to deal with their distress). In this study, primary informal caregivers of cancer patients were selected. Burden assessment schedule, burn out inventory and Coping checklist II had been selected to assess their psychological distress andcoping styles. Comparison among the groups of caregivers reveal that in terms of burden and burnout there are significant variations among caregivers of stage wise different cancers. In case of coping strategies caregivers show significant stage wise difference on emotion focused coping strategies (distraction positive, acceptance, and denial) and problem focused coping strategies. Our findings may be helpful to improve the public health policy about family caregivers.