Caring for Family Caregivers of Geriatric Patients: Results of a Participatory Health Research Project on Actual State and Needs of Hospital-Based Care Professionals.

Theresia Krieger,Regina Specht,Ulrike Hagen,Elisabeth Dorant,Babette Errens

doi:10.3390/ijerph17165901

Abstract

Because of societal changes, family caregivers are becoming vital in long-term care provision for geriatric patients after discharge from hospital. Hospital-based geriatric care teams need tools to prepare and support family caregivers for their future caregiving role in the home environment. To explore the actual state and needs for implementing a suitable family caregiver support concept in a large geriatric hospital in Germany, a Participatory Health Research methodology was chosen. An academic investigator, assisted by a critical friend, facilitated all research steps. Geriatric care professionals joined as co-researchers and performed qualitative data collection using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The entire co-research team took part in the thematic analyses. The existing family caregiver support was perceived as uncoordinated and incomplete, and a lack of knowledge about support programmes in the community was apparent. The needs regarding a comprehensive family caregiver support concept that acts on both individual caregiver as well as on system level, but also connects the two levels, were formulated. High grades of participation of hospital-based co-researchers could be achieved. A critical reflection on the research strategy revealed that the participatory methodology, although time-consuming, was perceived as a useful strategy within the hierarchically organized hospital.

Highlights

Caregivers are considered as the backbone of the long-term care and support system [1,2].Family or informal caregivers offer voluntary and unpaid physical, practical, and emotional care and/or support to a person with a disability in the home environment [3,4].1.1
Because of the haphazard way of engaging with family caregivers of geriatric patients by individual care professionals, little is known about how and what is needed to best deliver that support in a more organized way and to inform the hospital management on the best way of implementing the new holistic support concept. We report on both the process and the results of a Participatory Health Research (PHR) study on actual state and needs of the multidisciplinary team (MDT)
In part 1, the PHR process will be presented per phase, accompanied by the management plan (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Caregivers are considered as the backbone of the long-term care and support system [1,2].Family or informal caregivers offer voluntary and unpaid physical, practical, and emotional care and/or support to a person with a disability in the home environment [3,4].1.1. Caregivers are considered as the backbone of the long-term care and support system [1,2]. Or informal caregivers offer voluntary and unpaid physical, practical, and emotional care and/or support to a person with a disability in the home environment [3,4]. Of all care to those with care needs is provided by family caregivers in their home environment [5]. Three to five Million German family caregivers provide unpaid care to 4–5 Million persons in need [6]. Most of these family caregivers are female, between 40–85 years old, and still in employment when younger than 65 years [7]. Public Health 2020, 17, 5901; doi:10.3390/ijerph17165901 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion