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Title
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Social support for informal caregivers of community-dwelling frail elderly
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Author
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Abstract
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| A vast majority of people, when aging, choose to be taken care of at home by their informal caregivers as long as possible instead of moving into a nursing home. In the health care sector we also notice a shift from residential care towards home care, in which also the informal caregiver is being given a more prominent part. Although many informal caregivers find satisfaction in taking care of a family member or friend, this can prove to be quite heavy at times, so that the informal caregiver may even experience physical and mental health problems, financial problems and social isolation just by providing informal care. Governments and healthcare authorities acknowledge the increasing role of the informal caregiver in the care for community-dwelling frail elderly, and they are aware of the necessity to support them in their role so as to guarantee a qualitative home care for the frail elderly. In Flanders informal care and support for informal caregivers have been paid more attention to during the last few years by, among others, initiatives like the Flemish informal care plan 2016-2020 of the former minister of welfare, public health and family, mister Jo Vandeurzen [1] and by largescale research projects on informal care and informal care support in Belgium and Europe [2-4]. Several supporting measures and services for informal caregivers are available, such as among others informal care fees, flexible leave systems, respite care and psycho-social support. But nevertheless under-utilization of the available supporting measures and services is a lingering problem with informal caregivers of the community-dwelling frail elderly. Social support by people close to the informal caregiver, and hence more accessible, is possibly better accepted. International studies on social support for informal caregivers show positive results on psychological effects such as experienced burden. In order to be able to understand how informal caregivers experience informal care and social support, it is necessary to do some research into the concept of informal care support starting from the point of view of the informal caregiver himself. The various studies bundled in this doctoral thesis aim to gain knowledge on how informal caregivers of community-dwelling frail elderly experience the informal care and how they experience social support in this role. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
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2020
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Volume/pages
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121 p.
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Note
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Remmen, Roy [Supervisor]
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Wens, Johan [Supervisor]
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Anthierens, Sibyl [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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