Abstract
M.Cur.
The objective of this research is to explore and describe how the wife of a husband who suffered job loss, experiences this situation. In a country like South-Africa, where the unemployment rate ( 41,8% according to the expanded definition ) is very high and there doesn’t seem to be a solution, the wife of a unemployed husband faces considerable stress and increasing demands on a physical and psychological level. The wife of a husband who has suffered job loss, experiences problems regarding all the dimensions of human being. Her life becomes a struggle for survival from day to day. All this can give rise to mental problems.
A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, contextual research study has been undertaken to describe how the wife experiences it when her husband lost his job and to describe guidelines for psychiatric nurse practitioners to support these women. All the participants were residents of Pretoria and Midrand and their husbands had suffered job loss during the past year. Data was gathered through one-on-one in-depth interviews and analysed according to Tesch’s method of open coding.
A qualitative exploration of these interviews showed that these wives appear to experience severe reactions on their physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions. A majority of these wives took full emotional responsibility for the whole family and suppressed her own needs and emotions. It then happened that they were confronted by the question: why do I live?
This is worsened by the fact that the husband’s functioning is usually inadequate because of this trauma. This situation may have a negative impact on the couple’s relationship and on the development of their children.
Guidelines were developed to emphasize the characteristics that the psychiatric nurse practitioner needs to help these women find some meaning in life. Community-involvement, support-groups and marriage-counselling are part of the guidelines to facilitate these women’s mental health. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made in the hope that this study will be integrated into future research.