Exploring Family Resilience in a Community Mental Health Setup in South India

Abstract The purpose of the study is to identify the socio-demographic characteristics and understand the level of family resilience of clients and their caregivers seeking treatment for mental illness within a community mental healthcare set-up. The sample consists of 60 respondents from impoverished urban and semi-urban families whose family members are currently undergoing treatment at the community mental health clinic run the Mental Health Action Trust (MHAT), a local NGO based in the northern region of Kerala in South India. The methodology requires the participants to report the current symptom severity for their family members suffering from chronic mental illness, using the 18-item Brief Psychiatric Scale. They were then interviewed about how different aspects of family resilience applied to their own lived experiences as primary caregivers using Sixeby's Family Resilience Scale based on Walsh's conceptual framework of family resilience. The study is expected to contribute to understanding how families might be nurtured and strengthened using Walsh's family resilience approach in an Indian cultural context.