<b>Difficulties faced by family caregivers taking care of dependent senior citizens at home</b> - doi: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v11i1.18864

Abstract

The difficulties faced by the family concerning the dependency vary with the disease, personal experiences, and available resources. This study describes the difficulties faced by family caregivers to care for dependent elderly individuals at home. This is a qualitative study carried out with 19 family caregivers of dependent elderly, through a semi structured interview, at home. Data was treated by the thematic content analysis. The results indicated that caring for a dependent elderly, plus the need to reconcile different tasks, requires physical effort, help from others and emotional control. The difficulties that require physical effort and transportation of the elderly were the most reported. It is important to know the support strategies that could be used in dealing with situation of dependence, so that we can contribute towards improving the caregiver’s health and quality of care to be provided.