Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

For caregiving spouses, a partner’s move to nursing home care may provide necessary respite. Nonetheless, caregiver identity changes, rather than disappears, in the nursing home transition. Research describes spouses as frequent and engaged visitors, and the interface of formal and informal care is well-researched. There is, however, less research on co-resident spouses, despite possibilities for couples to cohabit in supported accommodation and a projected growing demand. In Sweden, spouses may live with their partners in nursing homes, although they are relatively healthy. This paper examines the accompanying spouses’ situation of living together and caring for a partner in a nursing home. Observations were conducted in five Swedish nursing homes where couples, one partner requiring extensive help and the other relatively healthy and independent, resided. Thirty-one interviews with the six couples and different members of staff that worked with them, were made. Spouses put value on the nearness to their partner during their last years of life, and see caregiving as a natural continuation of their earlier life. However, they also find it hard to maintain a distance from caregiving as they live in close proximity to their partner, and as they need to surrender caregiving responsibility to the staff.