Supporting The Family Caregivers of Older Adults

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Recommended: Application of caregiver stress theory

The term ‘carer’ is someone, who is providing an on-going significant level of care to a person who is limited by chronic conditions (DOH 2012). Caregiving involves from a short period of post-acute care to long term period of on-going care in accordance with the dependency level of care recipients. Family caregivers form the backbone of the social care delivery system by rendering an important proportion of their time and energy for the chronically ill or older adults (Angelo 2013). In fact, there are 164,000 older people with support needs in various communities across Ireland (TILDA 2012). Greater numbers of caregivers in Ireland are unpaid workers (89.5%), when compared to the 10.5% of paid carers (TILDA 2012). Most of the older adults need help from their close family members or friends, who spend a large amount of time interacting with their dear ones, while providing a comprehensive range of care activities. The provision of long-term care by family members has been found to be stressful in the sense of increased burden and anxiety (Neri et al. 2012). The difficulties, which resulted from multiple tasks leaves a personal strain on family caregivers, who often sacrifice their pastimes and own health needs for others (Angelo et al. 2014). In this study, the first part mainly focuses on the impacts of care giving as well as the needs of family caregivers. The second section will discuss the contribution of a gerontology nurse and the importance of education in the carer’s area of practice.

Majority of family caregivers performed nursing tasks for their beloved ones with chronic physical or cognitive conditions, which include managing poly pharmacy, helping with mobility devices, preparing special diets, performing wound c...

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...vers. American Journal of Nursing 111 (11), 52-8.

Plank A., Mazzoni V. & Cavada L. (2012). Becoming a caregiver: new family carers' experience during the transition from hospital to home. Journal Of Clinical Nursing
21(13/14), 2072-2082

Sahdia P., Val M., Robinson C. (2014) Does coping mediate the relationship between familism and caregiver outcomes? Aging & Mental Health 18 (2).

TILDA (2014) Profile of Community-Dwelling Older People with Disability and their
Caregivers in Ireland http://tilda.tcd.ie/assets/pdf/Carer%.

Toljamo M., Perala M. & Laukkala H. (2012) Impact of caregiving on Finnish family
Caregiver scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences 26 (2), 211-8.

Yoon S. K., Jong-Sung J., Jin-Gyu K., Sung-Soo K. & Samyong (2014)
Supportive Care in Cancer 22 (5), 1243-50.

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