First Advisor

Nancy J. Chapman

Term of Graduation

Spring 1995

Date of Publication

Spring 6-7-1995

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Studies

Department

Urban Studies

Language

English

Subjects

Alzheimer's disease -- Patients -- Home care -- Psychological aspects, Caregivers -- Social Networks

Physical Description

1 online resource (170 pages)

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease currently affects four million Americans and is increasing as "America grays." Although health complications can cause death within the first two to ten years, some persons with Alzheimer's disease live twenty years. Because three times as many persons with the disease live at home instead of in institutions, caregiver researchers have investigated caregiving in the home environment, focusing on caregivers' perspectives. Surprisingly, many caregivers reported that they did not receive the information or support they needed to manage home care from the traditional information resources, family and medical providers. The purpose of this study was to explore what sources of information spousal caregivers used most frequently to assist them in learning and carrying out their caregiving role responsibilities.

Twelve spousal Alzheimer's disease caregivers who were managing difficult spousal criterion behaviors (paranoia, wandering, sleep disturbance, and aggression) were interviewed twice in their homes and once by telephone, using open-ended and semi-structured question guides. Qualitative analysis of the interviews and feedback from the participants revealed that dealing with survival behaviors such as eating, sleeping, and personal hygiene were more important to the caregivers than the criterion difficult behaviors.

Two age groups became apparent in the sample, an older group in their eighties and a younger group in their sixties and early seventies. These groups differed in their perceptions about aging and caregiving. The older group saw caregiving as inseparable from the aging process, while the younger saw it as a stage, with spousal placement as an option. Both groups used family, personal experience, and caregiver support groups equally; doctors as informational support were used the least.

Exploration of the conceptual issues of social support, hardiness, and reflective practice with this sample lead to further understanding of how caregivers learn the caregiving role and verified the importance of these constructs when defining the context of Alzheimer's disease caregiving.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to pdxscholar@pdx.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Download

Share

COinS