Introduction: The burden of caring for patients with mental disorders falls more on their family members who provide all necessary support. The burden of care is directly related to the needs of the patients. Most of the caregivers of the mentally ill patients experience the extreme burden of care. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the caregiver burden of family caregivers of patients with mental disorders hospitalized in Shaheed Rajai Hospital in Yasuj in 2016.

Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, 246 family members of patients with mental disorders hospitalized in Shaheed Rajai Hospital in Yasuj, Iran, were selected using the convenience sampling method. After obtaining consent from the authorities and based on the inclusion criteria, data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and the caregiver burden inventory (Novak & Guest, 1989). Data collection was conducted for 6 months. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (demographic characteristics of samples, mean, standard deviation, percentage and frequency of the variables) and inferential statistics (independent t-test) by SPSS software version 21.

Results: The mean age of the family caregivers of mentally ill patients was 34.53 ± 13.74 years. The highest frequency and percentage of home caregivers was reported for the children of mentally ill patients (114, 46.3%). The highest burden of care was seen on the moderate burden level, with the frequency and percentage of 34 (51.5%) and on the intense level with the frequency and percentage of 32 (48.5%), which showed no significant difference (P = 0.74). Among the components of caregiver burden, time-dependent burden with a mean (SD) of 15.01(1.66) had a maximum load.

Conclusions: Considering that the burden of care can affect the quality of care of the mental patients, and can aggravate their mental conditions, necessary trainings are required to reduce the caregiver burden on the family caregivers of the mentally ill patients.