Informal carers of people with dementia : how to respond to their need for support and help on different levels?

Rihter, Liljana (author), Hurtado Monarres, Miriam (author)

Social work is constantly evolving and theoretically enriched to meet people's needs in new social situations. Informal carers must balance care with other demands while facing a range of obstacles. Despite research on what informal carers require, a specific typology of their needs has yet to be formulated. The research question considered is "What are the (groups of) needs of individuals who provide informal care for people with dementia?". As part of the research project Long-term Care for People with Dementia in Social Work Theory and Practice, we interviewed a non-random convenience sample of 20 relatives acting as informal carers of people with dementia. The results are presented as a typology of needs on the micro level (personal health—emotional health, physical health), mezzo level (care tasks—support from formal care, planning—information, counselling) and macro level (legislation, system changes). Most obstacles and needs identified were on the micro and mezzo levels. More than on the system (macro level), informal carers see the responsibility and burden of care as lying on the individual (micro level) and institutions and the community (mezzo level).

• Language: English
• Keywords: long-term care, social work, informal care, caregiving task, personal health
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FSD - Faculty of Social Work
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 93-107
• Numbering: [Vol.] 20, [no.] 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-167323
• UDC: 364.4
• ISSN on article: 1854-0031
• DOI: 10.51936/ztrc8377
• COBISS.SI-ID: 200534019

Copyright

Licenca Creative Commons je navedena na pristajalni strani članka: "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)". (Datum opombe 14. 2. 2024)

• Publication date in RUL: 14.02.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Metodološki zvezki
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 1854-0031
• COBISS.SI-ID: 215796992

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: dolgotrajna oskrba, socialno delo, neformalna pomoč, osebno zdravje

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-2567
• Name: Dolgotrajna oskrba ljudi z demenco v teoriji in praksi socialnega dela