Family conflicts around dementia home-care.

Investigated and categorized family conflicts around home-care for demented elders and the conflict management strategies of their primary family caregivers. Interviews were conducted with 12 caregivers (aged 41-75 yrs) of dementia patients followed in a memory disorders clinic who reported high levels of family conflict around caregiving issues. Descriptions of caregiving activities, activities that resulted in family conflict, and how the caregivers managed those conflicts were analyzed. Results show that caregivers' reported activities could be classified as involving direct and indirect care, symptom monitoring, situation management, and emotional support. Conflicts arose around the need for other family members to provide substitutive, complementary, or conjoint services. Interviews with an additional 27 caregivers confirmed the usefulness of the developed categorization. Practice and research implications for nurses, physicians, and therapists who work with families of cognitively impaired elders are discussed.

Duke Scholars

Author Linda Lindsey Davis School of Nursing