Informal Practices of SUD Caregiving Support for Carers without Mutual Support Groups: Experiences of SUD Carers of Young Adults in Zambia.
Background: Caregiving for a loved one with a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a complex, highly stressful, and often isolating experience. Extant literature shows that mutual aid groups offer a structured antidote, providing safe spaces to share experiences, adaptive coping strategies, and finding a community. Despite this, SUD caregiving in Zambia lacks mutual support groups for family caregivers accessing outpatient public hospitals. While there is established support for young adults grappling with addiction problems, their caregivers navigate the turbulent SUD caregiving experience with near non-existent mutual support groups.
Methods: A qualitative phenomenological study with 30 family caregivers was conducted using in-depth semi-structured interviews, creation of a caregiving timeline, and participant observations. This research explored the diverse ways caregivers without mutual support groups navigate the challenges of SUD caregiving.
Findings: For caregivers of youth struggling with SUDs, the emotional toll and practical burdens are immense. SUD caregivers in Zambia had common experiences including emotional distress, financial strain, and decreased self-care. With limited access to formal support groups, online resources and telehealth services, informal practices of support were crucial for these caregivers. These included leaning on friends and family, neighbors, and community members, and developing self-care behaviors such as reducing worry about the problematic youth to secure one’s physical and psychological wellbeing. Although this was the case, some caregivers reported that not all social networks offered emotional validation, practical help with caregiving tasks, and the much-needed breaks.
Implications for policy and practice: Findings of the study call attention to how formal and informal support networks can be fostered and strengthened to effectively meet the diverse needs of stigmatized and marginalized SUD caregivers. There is need for targeted policies, programs, and a unique model of support that would reach all who are walking this challenging, and often isolating, caregiving path in Zambia.