The Role of Siblings in Caring for Middle-Aged and Older People With Severe Mental Illness: A Scoping Review.

This is a scoping review, so it maps themes and gaps rather than testing whether sibling involvement improves patient outcomes. The included studies were heterogeneous, mostly questionnaires or qualitative interviews with small numbers of siblings, and many were cross-sectional or retrospective. Most studies focused on siblings of people with schizophrenia, so findings may not apply to other severe mental illness diagnoses. The review did not include first-person accounts from people with severe mental illness, so the perspective of the cared-for sibling is missing. Only English articles were included, and most studies were from North America and Europe. The findings may not transfer well to other cultural contexts. No patient or public was involved, and some grey literature sources were not searched because of time and resource limits.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not read this as evidence that siblings should or will provide intensive daily care. The review found many siblings prefer emotional, social, or financial support and resist regular tasks such as medication monitoring, and it does not show that involving siblings improves outcomes.