Exploring the experiences and coping practices of home-based caregivers treating persons diagnosed with mental illness in Clermont township, KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

This study explored the experiences and coping strategies of home-based caregivers in Clermont Township, KwaZulu-Natal, who care for relatives living with mental illness. Guided by an interpretivist phenomenological design, the research examined how caregivers construct meaning around their caregiving roles. Data were generated through in-depth interviews, participant observations, and group discussions with 20 caregivers, and analysed inductively using thematic analysis. The study was informed by Social Constructionism, Feminist Theory, Social Identity Theory, and medical anthropology, which together helped illuminate how caregiving is shaped by cultural norms, gendered labour, relational identity, and local interpretations of illness. Caregivers reported exhaustion, fear, stigma, strained relationships, and disruptions to household roles. Despite these challenges, they demonstrated resilience through prayer and spiritual rituals, peer support, acceptance, distraction, routinised care practices, and the combined use of biomedical and traditional healing systems. Structural constraints such as unemployment, gendered expectations, limited social support, and fragmented mental healthcare intensified caregiver burden. Yet many caregivers also described pride, identity reinforcement, and personal growth arising from their caregiving responsibilities. This study contributes to the understanding of community-based mental health care in South Africa by foregrounding the often-invisible labour of township caregivers. It highlights the need for culturally responsive psychosocial support, improved integration between formal and informal care systems, caregiver training, and policies that recognise and support home-based mental health caregiving.