Social Support and Family Care of the Elderly

Self-, Informal and Formal Care: Partnerships in Community-Based and Residential Long-Term Care Settings

Un accent croissant est mis sur le besoin de regrouper les efforts des personnes âgées, de leur famille et des fournisseurs de services constitués dans un contexte de collaboration ou de partenariat en ce qui a trait aux soins de longue durée, que ce soit en établissement ou dans la communauté. Il est donc nécessaire d'établir de quelle façon ces relations sont actuellement structurées. L'auteur procède à un examen systématique des résultats des études réalisées entre 1985 et 1998 sur les relations entourant les soins personnels, l'assistance formelle et l'assistance informelle dans ces deux environnements. Les résultats tendent à démontrer que les soins formels ne viennent pas remplacer les services informels mais qu'ils sont plutôt utilisés en supplément ou en complément des soins assurés par le réseau informel, et ce tant en établissement que dans la collectivité. La structure exacte de ces partenariats et la relation entre les soins personnels et les soins assurés par les systèmes formels ou non apparaissent moins clairs. Les résultats montrent qu'il faut recentrer l'attention sur des préoccupations plus larges de soutien des partenariats déjà en place plutôt que sur la création de partenariats et la protection contre les substitutions inutiles.

Who's the Family in Family Caregiving?

En dépit de la reconnaissance du rôle d'information de la famille auprès des personnes âgées fragiles, il n'existe aucune entente sur la composition des familles assurant la prestation de soins. Les auteurs discutent de l'idéologie de l'aide aux aines par la famille et le degré de connaissance sur sa composition. Us proposent que ces familles présentent des caractéristiques actuelles et potentielles. En se fondant sur l'hypothèse que le concept de «la composition de la famille» est le résultat d'une construction sociale, les auteurs démontrent qu'il est essentiel de comprendre «la composition de la famille» selon l'optique des principaux prestateurs de soins afin d'évaluer la nature de l'appui familial. L'ouvrage remet en question la notion que la famille assurant la prestation de soins se compose des proches parents. Les auteurs soutiennent que le statu quo, où une perception simpliste de la famille offrant des soins est utilisée afin d'exercer des pressions sur les familles pour fournir plus de soins, n'a pas d'avenir.

Support in nursing--an evolutionary concept analysis

BACKGROUND

This research into the concept of support was undertaken because of the recurrent use of the concept in nursing research and especially because of the vital importance of support to family carers of older persons.

AIM

To inductively develop a definition of support, specifically in the context of family care of frail aged persons.

METHOD

The study followed the evolutionary method of concept analysis. The study was based on data from scientific publications, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. In order to secure a representative sample, highly systematic means of sampling were used.

RESULTS

Working with the data underpinning this study, it was possible to put forward a definition of support for family carers who care for a frail aged person at home. The two major dimensions, as described under attributes, were merged into the following definition: "Support entails the provision of general tangibles such as information, education, economic aid, goods and external services. They are prerequisites for facilitating the family carers' competence or capacity in care. Moreover it entails necessary qualities such as individualization, adaptability, lastingness, room for verbalizing emotions as well as an idea of reciprocal symmetrical exchange between involved parties.

Support network transformations in the first stages of the caregiver's career

The purpose of this article is to propose a method to facilitate analysis of the processes involved in the transformation of support networks for caregivers of persons with dementia. The authors are particularly interested in the preliminary phases of the caregiver's career: the initial period ranging from the first manifestations of dementia to the confirmation of a diagnosis. This method combines the social network approach with narrative analysis. The authors discuss two cases to illustrate the concepts of density and clique to explain the maintenance and dissolution of the caregiver's supportive relationships. This method shows significant potential, in that it will help researchers explore social mechanisms related to the development of supportive relationships.

Social support and psychological distress in Kuwaiti boys and girls exposed to the Gulf crisis

Tested hypotheses about the role of social support in the relation between trauma from the Gulf crisis experience and psychological or health distress 2 years after the crisis. Participants were 151 Kuwaiti boys and girls exposed to high or low levels of trauma during the crisis. Participants were administered the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Index (PTSDI), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and measures of social support and health complaints. Children exposed to high levels of trauma had higher PTSDI and CDI scores and more health complaints than controls. Social support did not mediate the relation between trauma and distress. However, social support and sex functioned jointly as moderators of trauma on distress. Social support was shown to buffer the effect of trauma in girls but not in boys. Boys, however, reported lower levels of support than girls. The findings underscore the importance of the appropriate model specification in studies of stress and social support.

Informal and formal support for caregivers of a demented relative: do gender and kinship make a difference?

Gender and kinship were examined with regard to caregivers' use of informal and formal support and to two models of support (substitution or supplementation). Three groups of caregivers of a demented relative living at home--husbands, wives, and adult daughters--were compared on measures of both informal and formal support. The gender hypothesis deals with the similarities among caregivers of the same gender with respect to support. The kinship hypothesis refers to the similarities among caregivers having the same kinship with the carereceiver. The gender hypothesis was confirmed for informal informational support while the kinship hypothesis was supported for informal conflictual support. For most of the comparisons, the three groups of caregivers shared more similarities than differences. The interchangeability between informal and formal support seems to fall under the perspective of kinship because the daughter group is the only one where a model of supplementation was observed.