Family Caregivers’ Dilemma while Providing Palliative Care to Elderly Patients

Abstract

Elderly patients receiving palliative care are terminally ill, thereby requiring an increasing amount of caregivers’time and attention. Caregivers often face diverse issues and challenges while performing caregiving tasks. Thepurpose of this paper is to systematically investigate the challenges that trigger family caregivers’ dilemmas whileproviding palliative care to their elderly patients. The sample size was 10 respondents (family caregivers) who werepurposively selected by the researchers from hospital-based palliative care settings and home-based palliative caresettings. The finding of this study presents the existing and emerging dilemmas confronted by the caregivers of theelderly receiving palliative care. The caregivers in both settings reported elderly patients’ reluctance to performdaily exercises and medication. The caregivers in the hospital-based palliative care setting mentioned the patient’sdesire to go home, while the caregivers in the home setting needed extra assistance to manage the care needs ofthe elderly patients. The paper also highlights the implications for social workers functioning in palliative caresettings. In conclusion, caregiving for an elderly patient is a very arduous and demanding task. Family caregiversgrapple with many day-to-day challenges which creates dilemma in providing quality palliative care to theirelderly patients. They try to fix their dilemmas by looking at the issue through a medical lens and discussing itwith professional palliative care providers.