Family care is a crucial component in patient care, as it provides support and care within the
home environment. Family caregivers assume numerous responsibilities, including physical
care, emotional support, and the organization and coordination of healthcare services. Family
caregivers often face challenges such as physical and emotional exhaustion, financial burdens,
and a lack of formal support. Due to these challenges, it is important to provide appropriate
assistance for family caregivers to improve the quality of care and the life satisfaction. My
research focused on understanding the needs of family carers, which is a relevant topic for
social work, as it helps us to understand the lifeworld of carers. These needs include housing,
employment and financial security, daily life, social interactions, and institutional careers. I
also explored the awareness and adaptability of support systems for both patients and
caregivers, with particular attention given to experiences with palliative care. A key theme was
exploring caregivers’experiences in their roles, investigating how assistance to the patient was
provided, the share of help offered by relatives, and the coordination of family care, work
obligations, and care for a dying family member. I was also interested in attitudes towards death
within the family, the community, and society, as well as the burdens and challenges
experienced by caregivers and patients. I conducted a qualitative, empirical exploratory study,
collecting valuable data on their experiences through interviews with eight caregivers. The
interviews revealed both completely different and very similar experiences among the
caregivers. Common to all was the painful caregiving period, which included physical and
emotional burdens and feelings of loneliness due to a lack of support from the healthcare
system. Furthermore, all caregivers agreed on the need for training that would enable them to
better perform their roles and improve the quality of care. Patients spent most of their time at
home and rested, as their illness did not allow for more extensive activities. Informal caregivers
took care of the patient's personal hygiene, health, food and medicine shopping, meal
preparation, household chores, and care for the family and pets. Those informal caregivers who
were already retired found it easier to balance work, family, and patient care, while others
required help from their families. Those who worked with Dr. Lopuh were very satisfied with
the palliative care, reporting that they received everything they needed.
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