Conceptions of Family Caregivers: Implications for Professional Practice

Guberman, Nancy; Maheu, Pierre

doi:10.1017/s0714980800000611

Cited by 24 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…How professionals perceive families with respect to their responsibilities and obligations towards the elderly people for whom they care has an important bearing on their experience of formal support services. For example, they may be perceived as co‐clients, co‐workers and partners, or more often, as background and taken‐for‐granted resources (Twigg & Atkin 1994, Guberman & Maheu 2002). The political context in which formal support is provided in Ontario means that families are perceived, and indeed, written into legislature as background resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal caregivers’ experiences of formal support in a changing context

Wiles

2003

Health &Amp; Social Care in the Community

121

131

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As the location of long-term care of elderly people moves to homes and communities, and responsibility for care shifts to families, understanding the experience of people in this situation is necessary to ensure that support is appropriate, accessible and effective. The present paper explores informal caregivers' and recipients' relationships with formal support, drawing on thematic and narrative analysis of 30 in-depth interviews with self-identified family caregivers conducted over a year in a mid-size city in Ontario, Canada. All but six of these caregivers had had some interaction with formal support. The semistructured interviews explored caregivers' knowledge about, and perceptions and experiences of accessing and using formal support. Interpretation reveals how confusion and lack of knowledge about services, the inflexibility and lack of availability of services, and increasing pressure on the quantity and quality of publicly funded community-based resources combine to impact negatively on the experience of accessing and using formal support. Different ideas about the relative roles and responsibilities of seniors, informal caregivers and 'family' in general, and the state both shape and are shaped by policies and the situated realities of the provision of formal support. Providing care at home creates both opportunities and constraints for caregivers in their interactions with formal support. Lastly, this paper highlights the difficulties of interacting with publicly funded formal support as the costs of care are moved away from the state and onto families and individuals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal caregivers’ experiences of formal support in a changing context

Wiles

2003

Health &Amp; Social Care in the Community

121

131

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“…When support is needed however, most (75 to 90 percent) is provided by family members (Guberman and Maheu 2002). Spouses are the most important source of informal support, followed by adult children (typically daughters, but also sons) (Campbell and Martin-Matthews 2000).…”

Section: Informal Caregivingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gerontology in Canada: History, Challenges, Research

et al. 2009

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This paper introduces some of the key features, interests and responsibilities of gerontology in Canada. It first considers the development of gerontology as a dedicated academic field in the country since the 1970s through to the present day. Second, through the eyes of key studies, it outlines some of the main social challenges faced by academics and officialdom with regard to Canada's aging population. It focuses third on health care; the current state of, and directions for, clinical practice in relation to older people nationally. Collectively these three discussions provide a broad overview and entry point into the Canadian context of global aging.

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“…A new UK study has indicated that, while women continue to provide the bulk of care in the home and community, an increasing number of men are now heavily involved in caregiving, particularly within their own household (Hirst 2001). However, the transfer of responsibility from institutions to home has not necessarily been accompanied by effective service allocation and support to family carers (Guberman & Maheu 2000, 2002, Lavoie et al . 1998), even where policy and legislative frameworks mandate this (Fruin 1998, Arksey et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts on practitioners of using research-based carer assessment tools: experiences from the UK, Canada and Sweden, with insights from Australia

Guberman

Nicholas

Nolan

et al. 2003

Health &Amp; Social Care in the Community

Self Cite

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Researchers and practitioners in several Western countries have recently developed tools for assessing the situation of the carers of adults who are ill, elderly or have disabilities. The present article describes the impact of three such assessment tools, from Canada, the UK and Sweden, on the professional practice of assessors. All tools were tested in agency-based studies. Focus groups, workshops and interviews with assessors were employed to understand the impact on professionals and their practice. An Australian researcher and case manager comments on these experiences from her unique perspective. The results reveal that the use of carer assessments can lead to changes in the appropriateness of intervention by informing practitioners of issues which are given little attention, but which impact on the adequacy of interventions to the service user. Across the projects, most workers found that the tools facilitated a more comprehensive, in-depth and carer-focused assessment. Experience across all the projects suggests that, used sensitively, such tools and approaches can play a key role in transforming the relationship between carers, and the health and social care system. Giving carers a legitimate voice, acknowledging their perspective and expertise, and making them central to assessment processes accords them status both as active partners, and as individuals with their own needs and aspirations, rather than seeing them primarily as resources. As a result of their experiences, many workers and administrators concluded that home-care programmes must change their mandate to include carers among their clients, raising the issue of available monetary and human resources to meet the needs of this group. In addition, as our Australian colleague points out, time, efficiency, relevance, benefit and minimal intrusiveness are important factors for practitioners which influence their use of assessment tools.

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Conceptions of Family Caregivers: Implications for Professional Practice

Cited by 24 publications

References 19 publications

Informal caregivers’ experiences of formal support in a changing context

Informal caregivers’ experiences of formal support in a changing context

Gerontology in Canada: History, Challenges, Research

Impacts on practitioners of using research-based carer assessment tools: experiences from the UK, Canada and Sweden, with insights from Australia

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