On the Suitability and Potential of Nursing Care Discussion Forums as a Health Promotion Measure for Long-Distance Caregiving Relatives: Evidence from Upper Austria

Abstract

Background: The number of persons who have to overcome extensive geographical distances for caring for their older parent(s), hereinafter referred to as long-distance caregiving relatives (LDCs), is rising. However, in the non-English-speaking Global North, little is known about the LDCs’ health literacy and the design of tailor-made health promotion measures for this target-group. Using the example of nursing care discussion forums (NCDF), this paper reflects the requirements and (future) potential of professionally-lead support groups for LDCs on the case-study example of Upper Austria. Methods: In order to approach this unexplored topic considering spatial-related aspects, a qualitative-explorative study design was chosen, focusing on the providers’ perspective. A written survey among all NCDF-group leaders was carried out. Results: LDCs do not make use of NCDFs at present. It is considered that this is above all for time constraints, lack of information and location-based problems of fit. This applies for urban as well as rural contexts. Conclusions: LDCs need more attention in public health. Suitable NCDFs have to be located in the LCDs’ residential municipalities and have to fulfill different requirements from those of local caregiving relatives, particularly with regard to purpose and scope.

Understanding the Spatial-Related Abstraction of Public Health Impact Goals and Measures: Illustrated by the Example of the Austrian Action Plan on Women’s Health

“…Conclusion 3: The need for a closer cooperation of public health and spatial planningas claimed amongst others by Tomlinson et al [63], by McKinnon et al [60] as well as by Hendriks et al [64] in general or Lowe et al [65] for the urban context in particularemerged during the expert discussions. A concrete thematic starting point for a further dialogue between the two disciplines could be the issue of long-distance caregiving, a topic still neglected in public health in Austria [45,66]. The main challenge of including "new" issues or target groups in the AAPWH is to integrate them into the right impact goal(s) and already existing measure(s).…”

El rol del cuidador a distancia de personas con enfermedad crónica: scoping review

“…A esto se suman otras razones que atribuyeron los autores relacionadas con la baja autopercepción de los cuidadores a distancia sobre su rol, poco sentido de pertenencia al grupo de cuidadores, no sentirse atraídos por las diferentes medidas de apoyo, así como su indiferencia al impacto potencial que tienen servicios complementarios de apoyo virtual. Se concluye que es necesario revaluar la idoneidad y el futuro de los de grupos de apoyo en línea en el contexto del cuidado a distancia (47).…”

Capturing the Spatial Relatedness of Long-Distance Caregiving: A Mixed-Methods Approach

“…Finally, this paper should be the impetus for starting the discussion on (cross-cutting) methodologies for the quantification of the LDC phenomenon [ 1 ].…”

“…In many regions of the world demographic dynamics and thus unbalanced care support rates lead to new challenges in caregiving for the elderly in rural as well as in urban areas [ 1 ]. Particularly, the quality of intergenerational caregiving on the basis of adult children and ageing parents depends on geographical proximity and shifts to the center of the debate on the maintenance of informal domestic caregiving and the appropriateness and necessity for adaption of current (elder) care and health (support) infrastructures, both for the cared-for persons themselves and their caregiving relatives [ 2 , 3 ].…”