Being the caregiver of a person with a mental health problem.

Providing care to a friend or relative suffering from a mental health problem can affect the physical and mental health of the caregiver. In the Montreal Mental Health Survey, 405 caregivers of people suffering from such problems took part in a mail survey about their experiences. The goal of this article is to describe these caregiving experiences and to identify their predictors. Results show that seriousness of the care recipient's problem is a predictor of a negative caregiving appraisal, but much less so of a positive one. The caregiving context is decisive in relation to both the positive and negative aspects of the experience. A strong correlation is observed between the positive and negative aspects of the scale, indicating that the caregiving experience is not one-dimensional. On the contrary, it can be simultaneously burdensome and satisfying.