Introduction:

The treatment of cancer is an integral task in which it is very important that the institutions responsible for implementing public policies feel committed.

Objective:

To analyze the psycoaffective characteristics and the overload levels in informal caregivers of terminal cancer patients of Monteria, Colombia.

Methods:

Descriptive cross-sectional study with the participation of 50 family caregivers to whom were applied surveys to obtain the socio-demographic profile and the identification of the psycoaffective features, and it was used the Zarit´s Scale to assess the overload level. The results were processed with the help of the non-parametric descriptive statistics.

Results:

The study identified high levels of intense overload (74 %) as a result of the inexperience to exercise the care, absence of inclusive health programs and support groups that minimize the emotional impact; it was also identified a significant relationship between the care time and the overload.

Conclusions:

The excess of responsibilities, the lack of accompaniment by the health institutions, the inefficiency of public policies that exclude the caregiver and the loneliness in which family caregivers do their work affect their mental health and generate overload to them.

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