TY - JOUR
T1 - Immigrant Caregivers
T2 - The Double Burden Experience of Immigrants Caring for a Family Member With Severe Mental Illness
AU - Knaifel, Evgeny
N1 - Funding Information:
The author would like to thank all the families who participated in this study and Prof. Julia Mirsky for her helpful comments and support. This research was funded by the Israel National Insurance Institute [Grant Number 21120407].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - The aim of this study is to examine the factors that shape the burden experience among immigrants caring for a family member with severe mental illness. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 immigrant caregivers from the former Soviet Union in Israel. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The participants described their burden as an accumulation of economic, linguistic, social, emotional, and health-related adversities that negatively affect their coping and adaptation on the personal and familial level. The results showed that the objective and subjective burdens they experience include dimensions pertaining to their role as family caregivers, dimensions pertaining to their immigrant status, and the circular interaction between these two, which intensifies the overall experience of burden. The study proposes a new term—the “double adaptation burden”—that can help promote the design of research, interventions, and policies suited to the multiple challenges of immigrant caregivers.
AB - The aim of this study is to examine the factors that shape the burden experience among immigrants caring for a family member with severe mental illness. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 immigrant caregivers from the former Soviet Union in Israel. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The participants described their burden as an accumulation of economic, linguistic, social, emotional, and health-related adversities that negatively affect their coping and adaptation on the personal and familial level. The results showed that the objective and subjective burdens they experience include dimensions pertaining to their role as family caregivers, dimensions pertaining to their immigrant status, and the circular interaction between these two, which intensifies the overall experience of burden. The study proposes a new term—the “double adaptation burden”—that can help promote the design of research, interventions, and policies suited to the multiple challenges of immigrant caregivers.
KW - Caregiver burden
KW - Family caregivers
KW - Former Soviet Union immigrants
KW - Immigrant caregivers
KW - Qualitative research
KW - Severe mental illness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109903431&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10597-021-00863-0
DO - 10.1007/s10597-021-00863-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 34245444
AN - SCOPUS:85109903431
SN - 0010-3853
VL - 58
SP - 606
EP - 617
JO - Community Mental Health Journal
JF - Community Mental Health Journal
IS - 3
ER -
