Introduction: The shift towards community care for patients with mental disorders has resulted in transferring of the day –to-day care of patients to their family members resulting in psychosocial burdens hence; this result was to assess the burden of family care-givers of patients with mental disorders in Ekiti State.Methodology: The study employed descriptive design using 138 respondents as sample size using Leshie Kish formula. Apart from the demographic information designed by the researchers, three (3) standardized instruments were used to collect information from the respondents. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Zarit Burden Inventory (ZBI) were used to collect information from the family caregivers. Two research questions were answered and only one hypothesis was tested using statistical product and service solution (spss) version 21. Results: The result revealed 37.0% of the respondents’ experienced mild burden while 31.1% experienced moderate burden. High burden was associated with the amount of time spent caring for the relative, finance and trying to meet other responsibilities. Conclusion: It was concluded that majority of family care-givers experienced a considerable amount of burden and therefore a coping mechanism should be made available by nurses.
Keywords: Caregiver, Family caregiver, Mentally Ill and Psychiatric unit
