Identifying Opportunities to Support Family Caregiving in Chile

Abstract

Once older adults become less self-sufficient, one or more adult children often assume the role of family caregiver. Unfortunately, this situation is usually perceived as stressful by caregivers. To better understand this process, we interviewed intergenerational triads: older adults, their adult children acting as caregivers, and their grandchildren. The study results show that the commitment of caregivers is quite strong regardless of the place where they live. In addition, the gender of older adults and caregivers affects the dynamics and complexity of the process. Through this study we aim to identify opportunities to support family caregiving, respecting the preexisting relations, attitudes, needs, and expectations of the involved stakeholders.

Fathers, Young Children and Technology: Changes in Device Use and Family Dynamics during the COVID-19 UK Lockdown

“…Our findings build on previous work outlining opportunities to support informal caregivers [e.g., 9,49,70,84,94]. Many opportunities have been identified, including improving awareness of existing solutions, fostering meaningful interactions among caregivers, and drawing attention to caregivers' own wellbeing [9].…”

Barriers and wellbeing-oriented enablers of intergenerational innovation in the digital age

“…Barriers in this category include lack of independence [54,72,79], the high cost of technology investment [46,59,63], the complexity of virtual presence management [63,65], and generational differences in technological backgrounds [47,52,59,63,67,69]. Other barriers are lack of joyful activities [54,59,69,80] that can be integrated into real-life collaboration [46,50], the lack of technical training for digital collaboration [63], insufficient technological access [52,63,69] without a supportive technological environment [52,55,56,69,81], and the complexity of technology [56,65,82]. In some cases, the collaboration between the two generations could also be challenging because there is no right time for an appointment [21,32,83].…”

“…Reference Barriers Wellbeing determinants PB EB CB IB TB JP IE PA CS ME AR [55] x x x X x [51] x x x x x x [71] x x X x [102] x [49] x x x [82] x [6] x x x x x [20] x x [60] x x x [103] x [86] x x X [104] x x x [105] x x x [72] x x x X x [79] x x x x [56] x x x [73] x x x x x [106] x x x x x [92] x x x x [81] x [29] x x [31] x x [57] x x x [107] x [35] x x x x [108] x x…”

Perceptions on Connecting Respite Care Volunteers and Caregivers

“…All the previously discussed initiatives are not enough to cover the need for caregiving support and are not unified; some are sporadic interventions and they follow different guidelines for integrating volunteers and the kind of support provided. In Chile, as in many other societies, the care of older adults is usually the responsibility of a close family member, with generally strong affective links [25]. Only about 15% of older adults live on their own [18].…”