Care for Caregivers: Understanding the Need for Caregiver Support

Abstract

Most long-term care for older adults in the United States is provided by informal caregivers (Ahmad, 2012), the majority of whom experience an intense range of emotions from satisfaction to loneliness. Counselors must consider this emerging population of caretakers and learn methods to encourage clinical services to address their need for support. This article delineates experiences and challenges of informal caregivers and provides suggestions for effective clinical services for caregiver populations.

“Caregiving is a full‐time job” impacting stroke caregivers' health and well‐being: A qualitative meta‐synthesis

“…To help further support caregivers' well‐being, our findings suggest that respite services should also be encouraged to give caregivers time to participate in meaningful occupations, social roles and relationships. Examples of ways respite services can do so is by combining respite with relationship counselling (Kepic, Randolph, & Hermann‐Turner, ; Robinson‐Smith, Harmer, Sheeran, & Bellino Vallo, ), increased education (Ahmed, El‐Amin, Ahmed, Alostaz, & Khalid, ; Allison, Evans, Kilbride, & Campbell, ; Danzl et al, ; Reed, Harrington, & Duggan& Wood, ) or training about accessing psychosocial support (Grant et al, ; Hart, ; Martinsen, Kirkevold & Sveen, ).…”

Experiences of informal caregivers after cardiac surgery: a systematic integrated review of qualitative and quantitative studies

“…A consistent theme across the included studies was the amount of work and challenges associated with caregiving, and the lack of preparedness, which contributed to physical, mental and emotional stress for both care recipients and caregivers 17 65. The review findings are complementary to other research on caregiver strains across different populations 66. Among families, there is often an expectation that those living in the same household should help each other more than those living outside it.…”

“…Among families, there is often an expectation that those living in the same household should help each other more than those living outside it. However, the caregiver responsibility can make the care recipients feel like a burden,21 23 28 67 and caregivers often have higher rates of elevated blood pressures, anxiety, depression and emotional distress compared with the normal population 66. In a multicohort study (N ≈50 000),68 providing care more than 20 hours weekly was associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease compared with those providing care 1–8 hours weekly (HR=2.63, 95% CI 1.20 to 5.76).…”

“…Generally, women are more involved in caregiving than men,66 and 84% of the caregivers across the included studies were female spouses. The higher caregiver burden among women can generate health differences both intrasex and between women and men 16.…”

“…Task shifting can be liberating; patients and informal caregivers have to think differently and change perception regarding tasks that have been ascribed to men or women (eg, household chores, lawn maintenance) 67. Kepic et al 66 suggests that caregiving is associated with positive attributes such as feeling appreciated, needed, useful and confident, as well as having the opportunity to learn new skills. Given some positive outcomes, efforts should be made to support educational strategies that focus on trust, mutual understanding, social support and self-efficacy that foster positive expectations about the recovery processes for both caregivers and patients/care recipients.…”