Ways of Caring
When It Faded in Her…. It Faded in Me: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Impact of Caregiving on the Experience of Spousal Intimacy for Older Male Caregivers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anne Fee
Older male carers play an increasingly important role in informal caregiving, yet they have received little attention in the literature. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of caregiving on the experience of spousal intimacy for older male caregivers. Twenty-four older male caregivers, drawn from a region of the United Kingdom participated in one-to-one interviews about their caregiving role. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Three themes were identified: 1)’ Impact of caregiving on the experience of sexual intimacy’; 2) ‘Impact of caregiving on the experience of emotional intimacy’; 3) ‘Not up for discussion’. When sexual intimacy was declining, some older male caregivers replaced this with emotional intimacy; some felt sad and lonely; some considered residential placement; and some were reluctant to discuss the issue. Moreover, caregivers reported that they had not received support from health/social care practitioners or other support providers for declining sexual or emotional intimacy. Sexual and emotional intimacy has been reported as important for caregivers given its link with caregiver well-being and quality of life. This is necessary for all caregivers, however it may be especially important for older male caregivers given their reported reluctance to discuss these personal matters, and evidence of loneliness and isolation. Results of this study suggest that sexual and emotional intimacy was an issue for older male caregivers, and that this issue should be considered by external support providers as part of a holistic assessment of need in order to tailor effective support.
Taking Care - a Family's Story: Moral Division of Labor and Tensions between Elderly Persons and Informal Caregivers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Duconget Lisa
In this study, we review parts of the results of my thesis. The main question of this study was: How formal and informal help is given during the care of a eldery person who is staying at home and what are the consequences of this division on the different actors? The care by informal caregivers of an elderly person at home is multifactorial. We see that we do not take care of the elderly in the same way according to whether we are children or spouse, whether we are a woman or a man, according to our religion, our economic situation, our cultural background. The care of an elderly person is also an important physical and moral burden, which is not always recognized by the public authorities. In the context of informal assistance, this recognition is even more complicated because several elements come into play such as moral obligation or economic obligation. The purpose of this review is to give you an overview of informal help in France and to suggest ways of thinking about how to take a better care of elderly people and informal caregivers.
Negotiating Caregiver Responsibility in Assisted Living: Different for Accompanying Husbands and Wives?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Cristina Joy Torgé
The co-habitation guarantee in Swedish eldercare involves the right of older couples to cohabit in assisted living facilities even if only one of them has the need for residential care. Assisted living residences are sites for advanced care. However, when an apartment in the facility becomes a home for a couple, there is a boundary-crossing of care practices in the domestic sphere and sphere of formal care. This study is based on a qualitative research project involving participant observations and 32 interviews with couples and staff in five assisted living residences in Sweden. Previous analysis showed that although the weight of care responsibility is on the staff, the accompanying spouse’s caregiving career continues. This review focuses on apparent differences in the caregiving expectations by staff, where negotiation of care responsibility may be gendered. Both accompanying wives and husbands were very involved in caregiving before the transition to residential care. However, the accompanying wives expressed struggling more than the husbands in finding and delimiting their new caregiver role in relation to the staff. The staff also more clearly expressed the need to support the accompanying husbands in the family carer role in the facility. Keeping in mind that the study is based on a small number of cases, these results, based on coding and constant comparison of the couple- and staff interviews, are nevertheless striking and show how the caregiver role is negotiated.
