Parents’ Experiences of Caring Responsibility forTheir Adult Child with Schizophrenia

As a consequence of the latest psychiatry-related reform in Sweden and its implementation, relatives and family members have takenover from the formal healthcare system significant responsibility for the care of persons with a mental disability and illness. Theaim of this study was to systematically describe and analyze the experiences of parents’ informal care responsibility. The questionswere, what are the experiences around parents’ informal care activities and responsibilities and how do parents construct andmanage their caring responsibility and with what consequences? Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted (16 hoursof recorded material) with eight parents who were all members of the Interest Association for Schizophrenia (Intressef ̈oreningenf ̈or Schizofreni(IFS)) in Sweden. A mixed hermeneutic deductive and inductive method was used for the interpretation of thematerial. The parents endow their informal caring responsibility with meaning ofbeing a good,responsible,andaccountableparentwith respect to their social context and social relationships as well as with respect to the psychiatric care representatives. In thistense situation, parents compromise between elements of struggle, cooperation, avoidance, and adaption in their interaction withthe world outside, meaning the world beyond the care provision for their child, as well as with the world inside themselves