Abstract:

Subject and Purpose: Diseases affect the patient and his relatives economically, emotionally, psychologically and socially. Epilepsy disease, which is the subject of this study, is a disease that limits the quality of life and social functionality of both the epileptic person and the caregiver. In this study, the problems of caregivers of epilepsy patients and their ability to cope with these problems were considered. Material and Method: 10 people who care for epileptic individuals were reached with the purposeful and snowball sampling method and interviews were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire. These interviews were then decoded and analyzed. Results: It was found that people who care for epileptic individuals experience economic, social and psychological problems due to the disease, but they also develop various coping mechanisms to cope with these problems. Conclusion: It has been observed that the quality of life of the caregivers of the epileptic individual decreases and their social functionality decreases. Due to the nature of the disease, the lives of the caregivers are summarized in two words: lives on alert.

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