INFORMACIONES PSIQUIÁTRICAS 247

Informaciones Psiquiátricas 2022 - n.º 247 11 Introduction Since the 1970s, thanks to new treatments and the assertive community model, care of serious and chronic mental disorders has largely been undertaken by the individual and his or her family environment, genera- ting a significant burden of care. The family environment is usually the setting where the patient lives, where he/ she exercises self-care, and where he/she generally restarts his/her life project and resumes his/her duties and rights after an accident or illness. The role of the family and the caregiver is key to the growth of the person having experienced a relevant loss of functions, such as may result from brain or spinal cord injuries (1,2) but also those secondary to severe mental disorders, a relevant point for the WHO from the 21st century onwards (3). Caregiver burden refers to the strain en- dured by a person who cares for a chroni- cally ill individual (4) and it has an ob- jective component (quantifiable tasks and responsibilities, time spent) and a subjec- tive component (own level of discomfort in performing the task) (5). These components are influenced by different aspects of care- giving, and their overload has been linked to increased symptoms, especially negative type, and disruptive behaviors, hospital ad- missions and use of health services by pa- tients, and to lower self-perception of care- givers in terms of their caregiving skills, a lower likelihood of getting help to care for the patient and poorer social functioning and health (4-18). The caregiver burden could be summed up in a single value but it is important to know the distribution of the objective and subjective burden among the different responsibilities and tasks in order to allocate resources and actions ap- propriately in the care of mental illness so that a good standard of care is maintained, and the functioning and well-being of the patient and caregiver is improved. In this paper, we present the different type of tasks about a large sample of care- givers of a person with severe mental disor- der in Catalonia in relation to the following question: Which variables explain the higher subjective and objective burden and percei- ved social support of the main caregiver of a person with severe mental disorder? Methods This study is based on the pilot phase of the Catalan Department of Health’s Activa't project (19,20), which has been applied in 12 areas of Catalonia that have a commu- nity mental health centre and an active ca- rers' association. Data were collected from 1 April 2015 to 31 January 2016. Sample The sample size calculated indicated that 222 care units (primary caregiver/patient) were sufficient for the detection of a mo- derate Minimum Detectable Effect (MDE) according to Cohen (21) and Boruch et al (22). The study involved 224 family units (patient and primary caregiver). Inclusion criteria for the care unit Patient: 1) between 18 and 63 years of age, 2) diagnosis of chronic affective disorder (bi- polar disorder and severe recurrent depres- sion) or psychotic disorder (schizophrenia, CAREGIVER BURDEN AND PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT OF THE MAIN CAREGIVER OF PEOPLE WITH SEVERE MENTAL DISORDER IN CATALONIA: TYPE OF CARE TASKS AND ASSOCIATED DISCOMFORT