[Sharing informal care: What are the considerations?]

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Sociology of Health
• Healthcare Management

Context:

• Increasing pressure on informal caregivers for senior citizens living at home in Dutch healthcare.
• Social, political, and demographic shifts exacerbate caregiving demands.
• Need for sharing caregiving tasks within social networks to alleviate caregiver burden.

Purpose:

• To investigate the considerations and barriers informal caregivers face when sharing caregiving tasks.
• To understand the psychological and practical mechanisms influencing the decision to share care responsibilities.
• To identify factors hindering the distribution of care work among informal networks.

Summary:

• Pilot study using semi-structured interviews with six informal caregivers of home-dwelling senior citizens.
• Identified key considerations: caregiver workload, reluctance to ask for help, perceived care recipient needs, and a self-reliant attitude.
• Highlighted the significant role of responsibility feelings and decision-making for care recipients.

Impact:

• Findings suggest that addressing caregiver workload, shyness, and sense of responsibility is crucial for enabling task sharing.
• Provides insights for developing interventions to support informal caregivers and promote collaborative elder care.
• Emphasizes the need for further research into personal mechanisms underlying caregiver responsibility to create effective solutions.