Caregiver Competence to Prevent Home Injury to the Care Recipient with Dementia

Abstract

Home safety is a major concern for persons with a progressive dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease, because much direct care is provided in the home setting. This study used the Home Safety/Injury Model as a frame work to describe the domain of caregiver competence, one of the model's key constructs. Interview data from the perspectives of 17 informants yielded a total of 68 clinical situations that allowed exploration of the scope and dimensions of caregiver competence to prevent accidents in the home. The factors most influential for effective caregiver prevention of home injury were family support, an acceptance and ability to make role changes, teaching and role modeling from professionals, and long-standing values and family traditions. No single factor was sufficient to achieve effective caregiving for making the home safer, but the strength of one or two factors could compensate for the absence of others.

Caregiver Perspectives on Safety in Home Dementia Care

“…This study confirmed the range of safety problems that have been documented in prior work (Gitlin & Corcoran, 2000;Horvath et al, 2005;Lach et al, 1995). The potential for accidents and injuries provides support for further development of interventions and strategies to assist caregivers with their difficult tasks.…”

“…Horvath et al (2005) explored this problem from the perspective of health professionals working with caregivers in the community who identified similar problems and incidents. These authors described factors health professionals felt were important for improving caregiver competence, including education and knowledge of the disease progression, family support, an acceptance and ability to make changes, and values and family traditions.…”

“…Caregivers may think they can wait for some warning sign or behavior to indicate that it is time to implement changes. Unfortunately, sometimes the first warning sign is an accident that results in an injury or a wandering incident (Horvath et al, 2005). Further research is needed to assure that caregivers are able to adopt behaviors necessary to promote safety in home dementia care.…”

Caracterización del talento humano en salud que atiende a personas con enfermedad crónica: construcción de una encuesta

“…El soporte social que puede brindar o propiciar el cuidador profesional depende del nivel de conocimiento, acceso y uso de las TIC. Diferentes estudios documentan que la apropiación de las TIC para el cuidado puede fortalecer el vínculo afectivo, mejorar la unidad familiar y la relación THSdiada (cuidador y persona cuidada), evitando así el sufrimiento, el estrés, la depresión, el aislamiento, la angustia y la soledad propios de la EC [16][17][18] . Los mayores beneficios con el uso de estas tecnologías en pacientes con EC y sus familiares incluyen la consejería que se brinda para cada caso, la valoración positiva de los aprendizajes logrados, la sensación de seguridad al llevar a cabo el tratamiento en casa 19 , el desahogo, la comunicación de sentimientos positivos y negativos, dando como resultado la satisfacción y una mejor adaptación a la enfermedad 20 y mayor percepción de cercanía del cuidador 21,22 .…”

“…Las personas perciben con este seguimiento mayor sensación de seguridad en las labores del cuidado 12,15,16,20 . Para brindar un seguimiento al paciente en el hogar o antes de su egreso hospitalario los integrantes del THS cuentan con distintos recursos que según el tipo de población pueden resultar útiles en mayor o menor proporción.…”