CARING FOR A CHILD WITH MULTIPLE DISABILITIES LEADS TO DISTRESS CAUSING BURDEN AMONG PRIMARY CAREGIVERS- AN ANALYSIS

The present study undertaken focuses on understanding the causes of caregiver burden (the significant social, physical and emotional burden associated with the lives of caregivers of children with disabilities) among primary caregivers of children with multiple disabilities. The sample selected was 25(N=25), using random sampling method consisting of primary caregivers (parents= mothers, fathers) of children with multiple disabilities attending National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD). A self-constructed caregiver burden questionnaire was undertaken using inputs taken from Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI: Zarit, Orr, and Zarit 1985), a BSFC-short/BSFC-s (Elmar Graessel, Hendrik Berth, Thomas Lichte and Hannes Grau), The Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS)(Macera, Eaker, Jannarone, Davis, Stoskopf).The result obtained indicated that there is a notable perceived stress due to caregiving which leads to caregiver?s burden, there is an association between the following, gender of the respondents occupational status of the respondents (p=0.000, p<0.5), caregivers affected work caregiver burdened (p=0.032, p<0.5), physical stress experienced by caregiver affected health of the caregivers (p=0.004, p<0.5),caregivers relationship with other family members avoidance of guests, especially close relatives (p=0.008, p<0.5), to state a few. The study concludes that caring for a child with disability leads to an increased distress which leads to caregiver burden among primary caregivers. Raising awareness about the disability, providing institutional support such as counselling sessions, day care facilities and other respite care services can enable better caregiving.