Choose a channel
Check out the different Progress in Mind content channels.
Progress in Mind
Imagine if one working week every month your work performance was limited or compromised. That’s the situation faced by many schizophrenia caregivers who also hold down paid jobs, according to the findings of a large-scale caregiver survey presented by Dr Debra Lerner of the Tufts Medical Center, Boston, at the 2016 APA congress.
Dr Lerner said that over 18% of adults in the US act as unpaid caregivers, and she cited the findings from On Pins and Needles study which showed that three quarters of caregivers looking after someone with mental health issues find the task emotionally stressful.
Many caregivers to people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder work, and Dr Lerner therefore said it was important to try to understand the impact that their caregiving had on work function and productivity. To this end, Dr Lerner got involved in conducting a survey of caregivers who also worked, asking about their paid work commitments and employment.
She described the anonymous on-line survey, which included a number of validated tools such as the work limitations questionnaire (WLQ), designed to assess time lost from work (absenteeism), presenteeism and impact of caregiving on work productivity.
Results from over 1000 caregiver questionnaires were available for analysis, and showed that the average age of caregivers was 55 years, with the average age of the care-recipient 40 years. Most caregivers were women and most were the parent of the person with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Over 60% of caregiver respondents were in current work and of those, 69% reported being in full time work. Dr Lerner said that these statistics showing high rates of full time work among carers, emphasized the need to make things easier for caregivers, particularly as the survey showed that most worked outside of the home and many had lengthy commutes to their place of work.
Over a quarter of caregivers in work said they often had to take time off work but more than half said it was difficult to take time away from work for personal matters. Missing an average of 0.6 days per week from work and associated with work productivity losses of around 8%, Dr Lerner said that caregivers had work losses that are equivalent to those experienced by patients with MDD.
The survey highlights that being a caregiver to a person with schizophrenia spills over into work – with a negative impact on productivity. More research is needed to understand and quantify the burdens on those who care for people with serious mental illness.
Hot on the heels of a study showing that at least 8.4 million Americans provide care to an adult with an emotional or mental health issue, comes further information highlighting caregiver burden.
In a world of seemingly endless ways and means to keep abreast of the latest research, and countless virtual channels through which to forge networks and relationships, it seems the traditional congress is still very much alive.
At a closed workshop held during CINP 2016, a number of the recipients of the Young Investigator travel award* were brimming with ideas about ways to enhance the congress experience, yet were unanimous that the tried-and-tested elements of the congress concept still hold great appeal for young scientists and clinicians.
Attending talks by experts, networking with peers, hearing the latest research-thinking and taking time out from the rigors of their everyday research work and clinical practice – to reflect on the broader aspects of neuroscience and psychiatry – are enriching experiences. According to the young investigators at CINP, there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings and being part of the community engendered by a congress.
But that’s not to say that meeting and congress organizers should be complacent, or that there aren’t opportunities to make the congress experience better.
The Millennial app- and twitter-savvy generation want congress plans at their finger-tips, and sharing on social media is a given. Young investigators appreciate that congress data may be new and embargoed information, yet can see that high quality facts, opinions and concepts are worthy of wider dissemination. During the workshop, young investigators used the example of TEDx talks – ‘ideas worth spreading’ – which keep conversations going long after an event as an approach congresses could adopt, and during the congress, they would be more than happy to use and share handles and hashtags to communicate congress ideas and messages. They just want presenters to realise that when a delegate appears to be on their ‘phone – it probably means they are tweeting pearls of wisdom from the talk!
Young investigators appreciate that short of a major culture change, their older peers may not all rush to embrace twitter, but they suggested that facebook and facebook pages have broader generational appeal and they think that medical societies could work, for example, with student helpers willing to be their social media whizzes (officers) who establish and run social media campaigns.
During a congress, young investigators find plenary lectures by thought leaders and poster sessions to be excellent learning and idea-generating experiences. Soaking up ideas and being able to meet and talk with other scientists and clinicians is something the CINP young investigators think should be a regular event in their calendars. While not averse to e-learning opportunities and catching up on missed congress events via post-congress webcasts, the up-coming generation would prefer a concentrated dose of real-time interaction with their colleagues.
* Jee Hyun Kim, Australia; Jiamei Lian, Australia; Daniel Quintana, Australia; Saddichha Sahoo, Australia; Giulia Treccani, Italy (currently working in Denmark)
Young investigators, attending CINP 2016 through the Rafaelsen travel award scheme, shared their thoughts on what they like about coming to meetings.