title: [A Long Way Home: The Current State of Care Provided by Family Caregivers and Public Health Nurses to Persons With Mental Illness in the Community].
abstract: According to Taiwan's Health and Welfare Ministry statistics, Taiwan had a total of 122,538 people who were officially registered as mentally disabled at the end of December 2013. Worldwide, schizophrenia ranks as the sixth most burdensome disease in terms of total expenditures. The present paper uses the two actual care stories of the families of mental illness patients and compares and contrasts these with the community mental illness care models used in other countries. The hospital-based psychiatric and community-based mental illness care that is practiced in Taiwan presents dilemmas and has long focused on "disease-orientated care" rather than holistic care. The gap between institutional and community mental rehabilitation services in Taiwan are examined. We recommend that policy makers create an open space for mental illness family caregivers and public health nurses to engage in dialogue in order to effectively integrate the care resources available to community mental illness patients and to break down the care barriers that currently separate community mental illness patients, family caregivers, and public health nurses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan, ROC. 049719@mail.fju.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Yu-Chu
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taoyuan Branch, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Yu-Hui
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D064689:Nurses, Public Health; D013624:Taiwan
keywords: family caregivers; home care; mental illness; public health nurses