家有精神疾病的父母：探討兒少照顧者社會烙印與孤獨感及對未來的選擇

Families where a parent has mental illness: exploring young carers experiencing social stigma and loneliness and how they face their future choice

在臺灣，精神疾病家屬照顧困境的議題已漸受重視，然而對於兒少照顧者照顧精神疾病父母的研究仍然有限。西方文獻顯示兒少照顧精神疾病父母隨著年紀增長愈發感受到照顧責任、對精神疾病的社會烙印及孤獨感。本文以回溯性研究訪談兒少照顧者，深入探討他們在照顧經驗中所感受到的獨自照顧責任、社會烙印與孤獨感，及如何影響他們的童年生活和如何看待他們的未來。研究發現兒少照顧者因家庭缺乏社會支持與照顧資源而承擔照顧父母的責任，童年時期他們期望獲得專業知識、因應技巧及同儕支持幫助他們面對照顧困境，社會烙印致使兒少與家人傾向不主動求助而有長期孤獨感，且因受傳統文化影響看重父母的需求高於自己的需求，受訪者表示童年時期對於未來已做好犧牲自己幸福的準備以照顧父母為主，獨自面對照顧的困境。研究提出四點建議：一、精神疾病去污名化及為兒少照顧者充權。二、提供以家庭為中心的服務。三、同儕支持團體。四、學校支持。

In Taiwan, the issue of families where members have mental illness experiencing caring challenges has been increasingly addressed. However, the research on young carers caring for their parents with mental illness seems limited. According to the Western literature review, young carers supporting parents with mental illness have the greater feelings of caregiving responsibilities, the stigma attached to mental illness, and loneliness with increased age. This study adopted the retrospective research to interview participants who were young carers in order to understand their feelings of undertaking caregiving responsibilities alone, the stigma and loneliness through caring experiences and explore how they were affected under these circumstances and how they consider their future life. Findings indicated that young carers undertook caring responsibilities of the ill parent due to their families with a lack of social support and care resources, during childhood they wished to get professional knowledge and information, to learn coping skills, and develop peer support to help them tackling with caring difficulties, they perceived the stigma attached to mental illness which made them and their families tended not to seek outside help along with long-term loneliness, participants under the cultural influences prioritized the needs of their parents over their own ones. Additionally, the participants were mentally prepared to sacrifice their well-being in order to continue caring for their ill parent in the future and coping alone with caring difficulties. This study suggests firstly, destigmatizing mental illness and empowering young carers; secondly, providing family-centered service; thirdly, peer support groups, and fourthly, school support.