How does the admission of a family member into the ICU affect the mental and physical health of individuals?

I see no psychological effects from being in ICU. Anyone being hospitalized and families know ICU can come into the picture. Only problem I see for the family would be worry. Maybe for some anxiety.

Maybe ICU in ur country is different than ICU (Intensive Care Unit) in the US.

ICU in the US is usually used when someone comes out of Major Surgery and needs 24/7 monitoring. There maybe 10 beds and 3 to 5 nurses. Each nurse being responsible for a couple of patients only. The patient may sleep most of the time because they are on a high dose of pain killers. Unless there are complications, the patient is moved to a regular room within a few days. Could be in a day or two and then be transferred to a regular room.

I have not heard of anyone suffering from Mental problems unless its someone suffering from a Dementia or Alzhemiers and thats because they get disoriented because they are in a strange place with strange people. Physically, you are there because of some physical problem. Anyone in the US knows when going in for major surgery that they will probably be in ICU for a certain length of time.

Here in the US any physical therapy given is usually done in a rehab facility. Therapy is rarely done at the Hospital level unless a large hospital. So that means the person needs to get their strength back so are sent to rehab. They are at that facility until the therapist feels they have gone as far as they can go. Someone would more likely suffer mentally having a long Hospital stay or Rehab stay. They tend to be dreary places with not much to do.

Joana, both links are to the consent and disclosure type information, not the survey itself. 

A few other thoughts:

1.   Apparently you want to focus on "young adults".   Although some who post here are in that range, most of us are older, so application to our targeted range might come from parents of young adults, and not necessarily us as caregivers.

2.   You might want to consider expanding the time framework from just 12 months to a few years; you would probably get more response with that.   Some of us have been involved in caregiving for long periods of time, i.e., several years.

3.   In my experience the coping ability can evolve or devolve over a period of time, improving or not.   That might give you a better perspective on coping and adaptation of young adults.

4.   I'm not familiar with medical practices in the Netherlands, as well as the range of ICU treatments.   My ICU experiences were for complex medical issues; psychology or psychiatry and related complications weren't the focus.  

I only sought only psychological help once, and never went back b/c of the cost as well as the fact that I thought the seriousness of my concerns weren't being sufficiently evaluated.  Instead, I called a friend who was a medical professional and got better advice from her.

I honestly don't know if mental issues would be treated in ICUs in US hospitals.   Hopefully someone else has more insight into that issue.   But the ICU only setting  might limit your responses.

Otherwise, I think this sounds like a very worthy, well thought out, and certainly relevant study, and I wish you success in your efforts.

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This needs to be run by the administrator. I have reported the post just to bring u to their attn.