Paid Informal Caregivers’ Management of Older Adults’ Health Demands: Implication for Social Work Professionals in Contemporary Nigerian Society

Management and Coping with Care for Older Adults: Tales of Family Caregivers in Enugu State, Nigeria

“…Given this precedent, care management for older adults has some positive and negative aspects including a feeling of affection, the extent of closeness, a sense of personal satisfaction and often overwhelming, constantly demanding and always challenging (Friedmann & Buckwalter, 2014; Litwan, Stoeckel & Roll, 2014). Sometimes, some of these challenges in care management can be highly rewarding such that the caregiver will learn patience, kindness, compassion, and above all will be justi ed; while the care recipient will be satis ed with the services rendered (Ene at al., 2024). It is perceived that family members who provide care for their older parents receive blessings from them while their children will also reciprocate similar gestures to them in their old age.…”

“…This comes with progression in the age of older adults, di culty in mobility, decreased hunger, expanded delicacy, poor psychological capacity, decline in hearing, visual and dental status; among other challenges (Akinrolie et al, 2020;Ene at al., 2022b). Worrisome is that certain health outcome in ageing comes with a change in attitude (Ene at al., 2024). For instance, older adults suffering from dementia when they try to exhibit it may be perceived as witches and wizards from our African context.…”

“…Caregivers with little knowledge of older adults' health status, may be unaware of this health problem and this may compound the burden experienced in care management (Cadmus et al, 2021). Additionally, concerns ranging from caregivers' ignorance, age, educational status, uncaring attitude, outof-pocket payment for health services and lack of support have been reported in the literature (Adisa, 2019;Braham et al, 2019, Ene at al., 2024. This implies that in the time to come, these challenges may pose a threat to care management for older adults.…”

“…Although the Nigerian system has been insensitive to older adults by giving them little attention yet, professionals and researchers are not relenting in their efforts to bring the needs of this group to the fore. Most of the studies and research done by Nigerian researchers concentrated on health challenges and caregiving stress experienced by family members (Adebowale, 2016;Akinrolie et al, 2020; Animasahun & Chapman 2017; Ene et al, 2024;Cadmus et al, 2021). Of all these studies, none has investigated the coping strategies family members adopt in the care management of older adults in Nigeria.…”