P-737 - Psychological meanings of taking care of father’s/mother’s body of the opposite sex as reported by brazilian son/daughter of patients with dementia: a qualitative study

Abstract

The old aging has created a higher incidence of dementia. There is a high degree of patient dependency, considering the need of domestic caregivers. We consider the assumption that this new reality is very difficult for the contemporary family group, particularly in managing the patient's body. It can be more psychologically problematic when it occurs to parental figure of the opposite sex of the caregiver - son or daughter. To interpret the psychological meanings given by son/daughter of parental figure of opposite sex regarding taking care his/her body. Qualitative method conducting semidirected interviews in-depth. Two profiles of son/daughter caregivers emerged from the analysis of the set of interviews. A group of caregivers who have demonstrated sufficient psychological resources in their inner world in order to properly manage the physical intimacy of their parents. They seem to use good psychological defense mechanisms such as rationalization. In this case, they seem to put yourself in the position of health professionals. One subject shows this speech: “I left a little the condition of daughter and now I am in the position of a nurse”. Another group of respondents, due to many personal reasons, does not have developed an adequate emotional mechanisms. Faced the tasks of healthcare of their parents, they react with certain feeling of embarrassment and shame. Health professionals should seek to identify the emotional resources of caregivers of dementia patients to better assess whether these caregivers would be able to perform this role at this time.