Introduction: Long-term care is a complex multidimensional activity with a wide range of services and support that assists people with significant loss of their own capacity. It can be provided by paid formal caregivers and by family members, friends, or other community members that are defined as informal caregivers. Informal long-term care involves prolonged assistance to the recipient with daily tasks performed by someone within the recipient's social network without financial compensation. The demands of informal caregiving often lead to mental exhaustion and uncertainty in the caregiver role, meaning that individuals caring for another adult in a home environment are at risk of developing issues in emotional, mental, or physical health. Purpose: In this master's thesis we investigated the health and health-related needs of informal caregivers from the perspective of their subjective life experience. Methods: A descriptive method with qualitative content analysis was used for the study. Data was collected via semi-structured in-depth interviews with informal caregivers. In the master's thesis we focused on the health and needs of those informal caregivers who participated in pilot projects before the adoption of the Long-Term Care Act. Results: By analysing interview transcipts, we identified four themes: Being healthy while caring for others, Caring for others can take and give, Needs for support, and Feelings at the conclusion of the pilot project. With these themes we were able to describe in detail the complexity of health aspects of informal caregivers. The interviewees associated the negative aspects of their health with their advancing age and the level of complexity of the care recipient’s needs. Informal caregivers expressed the need for alleviating some of their burden by receiving more formal services, receiving respite care and the chance to be able to maintain regular social contacts. Discussion and conclusion: By exploring their experiences we gained insight into their experience of the caregiver role, their understanding of the connection between the provision of formal services and their own health, and revealed opportunities to improve their health and quality of life. In the current long-term care system, there are still many untapped opportunities to improve the situation of informal caregivers.
|
