Community and caregiver perceptions of giving care to seniors

Abstract

Background Family caregivers of seniors and disabled adults frequently bear the responsibility of aiding in instrumental activities of daily living and locating resources, often while raising their own families. As the demand for care rises, caregivers may experience declining physical health and increased social and emotional stress compared to their noncaregiving counterparts. This study aims to better understand the journey of unpaid family caregivers and identify opportunities for improvement across organizations, policies, systems, and teams. Research design and methods: A purposive sample of 28 current and former unpaid caregivers of seniors or people with disabilities (26 females and 2 males) participated in four separate focus groups. Recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using open coding. Results Six major themes surrounding the experience of caregiving emerged from the coding process: Ambivalence, “Boiling Point,” Coping, Acknowledgment and Acceptance, Family Dynamics, and Interaction with the System. Focus groups indicated an urgent need to identify and support unpaid caregivers earlier in their trajectory of caring for a senior and to provide consistent, right-time resources over the trajectory of the senior’s lifespan. Discussion and implications: The rational, emotional, and relational components of caregiving represent distinct but overlapping themes within the experience of giving care. Each theme influences another, creating an experience that is complex, fluid, and sensitive to change. The system surrounding caregivers must proactively identify caregivers as equal members of the care team for a senior or disabled adult early in the patient’s disease trajectory.

Social and health care services from a public health perspective: access to social and health care services for the elderly (60+) in the region of Gemer in Slovakia

“…These traditions might affect the extent of informal care (Martinkovičová and Kika, 2016). We agree with the authors (Ślusarska et al, 2019;Stojak et al, 2019;Waniger et al, 2019) whose research shows that family caregivers frequently bear the responsibility of aiding in the instrumental activities of daily living and locating resources -often while raising their own families.…”

Formálne a neformálne opatrovanie seniorov v domácnosti na južnom Gemeri

“…This kind of unpaid work is strenuous. As research shows (Waniger et al, 2019;Stojak et al, 2019;Ślusarska et al, 2019), family caregivers of seniors and disabled adults frequently bear the responsibility of aiding in instrumental activities of daily living and locating resources, often while raising their own families. As the demand for care rises, caregivers may experience declining physical health and increased social and emotional stress compared to their noncaregiving counterparts.…”

“It’s about being healthy”; a novel approach to the socio-ecological model using family perspectives within the Latinx community

“…The richness of the data from family interviews developed into such a new and dynamic model over time. Early versions consisted of interconnected and adjacent circles similar to a model developed by Waniger [ 4 ] in describing the process of caregiving. This model, too, did not seem to capture the movement that was occurring as an expression of the phenomenon.…”

“…This model encourages interventions to target multiple levels rather than individual behaviors alone [ 3 ]. Though many interventions exist to support health and well-being, more meaningful intersections are needed across this social-ecologic framework [ 4 , 5 ]. However, a critical barrier to progress exists: many intervention models are created without input from the families, participants, and communities about what may be most effective in working with community partnerships [ 6 ].…”