A Guidebook For Mental Health Caregivers

About Mental Health Caregiving

The National Alliance for Caregiving is pleased to present Circle of Care: A Guidebook for Mental Health Caregivers. It was developed with generous support from the Alkermes Inspiration Grant Program, to whom we are most grateful.

The Circle of Care guidebook emerged from the national study on mental health caregiving, On Pins & Needles: Caregivers of Adults with Mental Illness. This study was conducted with the assistance of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health America and released in February 2016. It was the first national survey of mental health caregivers conducted in the United States: it identified numerous challenges faced by these caregivers. You can learn more about this study in the first fact sheet in this guidebook: 01: About Mental Health Caregiving.

Introduction

As many as 8.4 million Americans act as caregivers to adults with emotional or mental health conditions. Studies have shown that mental health caregivers often have a heavier burden of care and higher stress levels than the typical family caregiver.

To investigate the experiences and hurdles encountered by these “mental health” caregivers, the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) partnered with Mental Health America (MHA) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to survey caregivers of adults with mental health conditions. The purpose of this national study was to understand experiences, and identify challenges, that occur to this specific group of caregivers. In September 2015, the study collected data from 1,601 adult caregivers who provide care to a friend or family member with a mental health condition such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other conditions. The resulting report, On Pins & Needles: Caregivers of Adults with Mental Illness, was published in 2016.