Abstract
Objective
Aimed to know the personal demands of family caregivers through conducted roundtables.
Method
In 2017, two groups were conducted with 6 roundtables each with the following guiding questions: 1) “Who am I? Who do I take care of?”; 2) “What is dementia for me?”; 3) “What is my role in the daily care activities of the person with dementia?”; 4) “What are my thoughts or emotions that are triggered by caring?” 5) “Can I see something positive in this caring experience?”; and 6) “How do I care or could take care of myself?”. Inclusion criteria were: to be a caregiver of the elderly with dementia, to have been doing this role for at least 6 months, and to be available and willing to participate in the meetings. The roundtables took place every fortnight with an hour and a half minutes of duration each, with an occupational therapist as facilitator. All the roundtables were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through the thematic content analysis.
Results
Fifteen family caregivers participated. From the analysis, nine thematic categories emerged: self-perception of physical and emotional impairment; the search for support; caregiver overload and stress; what I learned from this experience; the mixture of feelings; the losses; valuing the simple aspects of daily life; I already take care of myself; and I need to take care of myself.
Conclusion
the identification of these personal demands of family caregivers of elderly people with dementia can raise awareness and make health professionals aware of the importance of considering these aspects in proposing interventions focused on caregivers.
Keywords
Aging; Dementia; Caregiver; Occupational Therapy