Family: The main shelter of depressed patients

Depression is the most common mood disorder. Today، family has most responsibility in caring of psychiatric patients. For having best care of depressed patients، families need to social and health systems supports. Since the aim of this study was to explain the experiences of the families about function of these supportive sources. This is a qualitative research that it was done using conventional content analysis method. 24 family members of the patients suffering from depression referred to Razi psychiatric clinic in Tehran was selected using purposeful sampling. Unstructured and in-depth interviews were applied to collect data. The interviews were transcribed and constant comparison analysis was applied. MaxQDA2007 software was used to manage the data. According to family experiences، social and health support sources are not comprehensive and efficient. The performances of the supporting sources have been extracted in four themes. These themes include: “incorrect viewpoints of the society”، “inadequate support”، «ineffective health system”، “economic–cognitive deficiency of the families” that they were the main themes. During the process of caring depressed patient، families find themselves alone. They need to access to comprehensive support systems easily. In addition، health team must implement the follow up programs regularly and dynamic.