Caregivers

Caregiving is the help provided to someone who is unable to live independently and who needs assistance with eating, bathing, or dressing. The definition of caregiver is anyone who provides assistance to an older adult or someone with a disability. Informal caregivers are unpaid individuals who care for a family member or friend. Worldwide, female family members, such as wives and adult daughters, are the primary caregivers to the aged and those in frail health. The care can be at home or may be informal care in a long-term care setting. As the global economy changes and as more women enter the labor market, informal caregiving has become more of a challenge throughout the world.

Past research on informal caregivers has focused on caring for the aged, in particular those with Alzheim-er's disease or dementia. This research has shown that caregiving can negatively impact on the caregiver's psychological health due to increased stress, burden, and depression. Caregivers contend with time constraints, financial pressures, family tensions, and employment concerns. In addition, caregivers exhibit poorer physical health. Previous research has shown that race, older age, employment status, and inadequate social support increase the caregiver's risk for poor health outcomes.

Caregivers experience many different processes in caring for a frail family member, including identifying a diagnosis, finding support, and decision making about treatment and the location of long-term care. When looking at caregiving cross-culturally, past research has shown that the meaning and process of caregiving are influenced by culture, socialization, and religion. Paying respect and providing for elderly parents are values that are common throughout the world. For example, among Thai caregivers of chronically ill relatives, caregiving was seen as a willingly accepted burden and an unavoidable duty, attitudes that are clearly influenced by Buddhist beliefs. In a study of family caregivers of Alzheimer's patients in China, cultural ideals promoting family interdependence, veneration of elderly family members, and acceptance of traditional family roles reduced the psychological impacts of caregiving. At the same time, cultural barriers can also prevent respite care for the caregiver. In a study of Asian-American caregivers, personal issues, such as caregivers feeling unwilling or too proud to accept outside help, provided barriers to care for the caregiver.