Resumo de Characterístics Of Caregivers Of Dependent Elderly Persons Within The Context Of Family Health

Characterístics of caregivers of dependent elderly persons within the context of Family HealthThe prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases, together withhealth care for the elderly and support for family caregivers,represents new challenges for our Health system. Providing care forcaregivers is also a responsibility of health professionals. Theobjectives of the present study were to characterize informalcaregivers of dependent elderly persons in the Family Health Nuclei(NSF) of CSE-FMRP-USP and to describe some of the difficulties andnecessities faced by these caregivers while performing care activitiesand the overload that these activities impose on the body and health ofcaregivers. The study was conducted on 52 caregivers belonging tofamilies registered at the NSF, who answered a questionnaire with openand closed questions entitled ?Characteristics of caregivers of theelderly within the context of Family Health?. The interviews were heldin the residence of the caregivers in the months of September andOctober 2004. The caregivers were predominantly women ranging in agefrom 50 to 70 years. Most of them were married, i.e., they dividedtheir time between the responsibilities towards house and family andthe caregiving activities. Regarding the degree of kinship with theelderly persons, most were daughters, followed by spouses. Regardingthe presence of home care, most reported that they were receivingassistance from the NSF teams. Most of the caregivers had learned ontheir own about the activities involved in caring for a sick person, ina practical manner, on the basis of trial and error. The difficultiesfaced in performing home activities varied according to the degree ofdependence of the elderly person and to the family support received bythe caregiver. The alterations in the body and in health after thebeginning of the caregiving activities ranged from physical ones suchas the appearance of body pains, especially back pains, topsychological and emotional ones such as stress, depression, anguish,and increased worries. The general observations made by the caregiversregarding the process of caring for somebody sick varied, with somebelieving that the process was good and stating that they accepted thesituation, while others stated that it was a question of obligation,affection and responsibility. All the information analyzed confirmedthat a successful maintenance, recovery or promotion of the health ofthe elderly is directly related to the preparation of, and support to,the caregivers. The Family Health Program arises within this newperspective as a strategy for Summary the reform of the system,providing important changes in the actions, in the organization ofservices and in the practice of health care, with valorization of thefamily theme.

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