Swiss caregivers crucial for mental illness support, study finds
According to current estimates, almost 60% of adults in Switzerland, or around 2.1 million people, have provided active support to a mentally ill person in their environment. From the perspective of those affected, this support is important.
A majority of people affected by some form of mental illness say that without the support of those around them they would be dependent on additional professional help. This was the result of a study published on Wednesday by the Zurich-based Institute for Social and Political Studies (Sotomo).
Of the carers surveyed, three quarters stated that the role was psychologically stressful. Just over half believe that there are not enough programmes to adequately support the social environment of people with mental illness. They would like better access to information and more opportunities to share their personal experiences. Three quarters find that they receive do not receive the necessary understanding from society for the support they provide.
+The Swiss prioritise mental health over salary
More than two thirds of relatives and confidants provided or have been providing this support for at least one year, and one third for more than five years. According to Sotomo, the longer the period of support, the greater the potential for conflict.
Over a third of those surveyed had experienced a family member suffering from a mental condition in their childhood. A large proportion were negatively affected by the experience.
For the study, 2,042 people from German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland were surveyed online between November 14 and November 27 last year. The study was commissioned by Stand by You, the umbrella organisation for relatives and confidants of people with mental illness.
Do you want to receive daily news in your inbox? Subscribe here.
Adapted from German by deepL/mg/amva
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
Flat-hunting in Switzerland’s cheapest and most expensive municipalities
More
Is Switzerland repeating England’s housing mistakes?
More
The Russia affair in the Swiss secret service: ‘This is espionage’
More
What a love of cat ladders says about the Swiss
More
Swiss food labels must declare animal suffering from July
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.