Abstract
Providing family caregivers with information, support and respite is an important fundamental objective of dementia care. Day care is one of several support and respite services for family caregivers, but there was a need for more knowledge about how day care meets family caregivers’ needs. A multi-method study was designed to investigate various aspects of how day care impacts on the situation and needs of family caregivers. The study shows that day care can help family caregivers to master a complex care role through a sense of security, support and respite. Day care can reduces the time a family caregiver spends on care, and helps them to find a balance between attending to their own needs and meeting the needs of the person with dementia. Additionally, day care can have a positive impact on the relationship and can help increase the family caregiver’s motivation to provide care. Day-care services have room for improvement with regard to offering more flexible opening hours, as well as offering content and family caregivers support that is more individually tailored and adapted to their situation.
List of papers
I. Tretteteig, S., Vatne, S. & Rokstad, A.M.M. (2016). The influence of day care centres for people with dementia on family caregivers: an integrative review of the literature. Aging and Mental Health, 20(5):450-62. The paper is not available in DUO due to publisher restrictions. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2015.1023765 |
II. Tretteteig, S., Vatne, S. & Rokstad, A.M.M. (2017). The influence of day care centres designed for people with dementia on family caregivers – a qualitative study. BMC Geriatrics, Jan 5;17(1):5. The article is included in the thesis. Also available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-016-0403-2. |
III. Tretteteig, S., Vatne, S. & Rokstad, A.M.M. (under reveiw). Meaning in family caregiving for people with dementia - a narrative study about relationship, values and motivation and how day care influences these factors. Submitted version included in the thesis. Published version (Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare 2017:10 445–455) is available in DUO: http://hdl.handle.net/10852/59506 |