The impact of day care designed for persons with dementia on their family caregivers

Abstract

Providing family caregivers with information, support and respite is an important fundamental objective of dementia care. Day care is one of several support and respite services for family caregivers, but there was a need for more knowledge about how day care meets family caregivers’ needs. A multi-method study was designed to investigate various aspects of how day care impacts on the situation and needs of family caregivers. The study shows that day care can help family caregivers to master a complex care role through a sense of security, support and respite. Day care can reduces the time a family caregiver spends on care, and helps them to find a balance between attending to their own needs and meeting the needs of the person with dementia. Additionally, day care can have a positive impact on the relationship and can help increase the family caregiver’s motivation to provide care. Day-care services have room for improvement with regard to offering more flexible opening hours, as well as offering content and family caregivers support that is more individually tailored and adapted to their situation.