A Narrative Study on the Pressure Adjustment and Nursing Experience of a Husband Taking Care of his Wife with Dementia

• Main Authors: JANG, SHIOU-LING, 張秀玲
• Other Authors: SHIU, HUNG-EN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4b2cs7

碩士 === 南開科技大學 === 福祉科技與服務管理所 === 105 === Dementia care is a long term and cumbersome caring work, the pressure and load on the caregivers must not be underestimated and ignored. The object in this study is an old male elder attending to his dementia spouse for twenty-seven years. We explore further about how the caregiver is to attend to and never give up his dementia spouse through the long years. The purpose of this study is to explore and to study the pressure and psychological adjustment experience of a male caregivers taking care of his dementia spouses. We apply the narrative research methods of recalling narrative, the interviews of the semi-structured depth and other ways to proceed the study. The results of this study revealed that: In the aspect of pressure from taking care of the dementia wife, the male spouse caregiver experienced the feelings of physically and mentally exhausted, self-blame, guilty and helpless waiting. But, with the company and support of the family, the situation changed from the initial reluctance to accept the facts to never giving up and to accompany to the end. In the aspect of facing pressure and adjustment, the caregiver relieves the depressed mood by means of writing articles, playing harmonica, daily exercises, or occasionally family travel arrangement. In the aspect of caring experience, for taking care of his spouses 24 hours a day, he have to play multiple roles at home in order to take care of her daily life activities. For alleviating and preventing the worsening of his wife’s dementia condition, he leaves books and magazines in the living room and study room for her to read at her wish in order to inspire her mental and thinking ability. Sometimes, his wife becomes unstable in mood or irritable in temper, the caregivers will stabilize her emotions by speaking with peaceful tone and patient, or transfer the topic. In the process of caring, by way of encouraging more, assisting more, and less blaming to reduce the chance of mutual quarrel. Whenever she is out of patience or becoming restless, he will play some music that she is familiar of in order to transfer attention and appease her mood. In a chance, he learned from his neighbors about that there’s an elderly day care center at the Tsao Tun nursing home of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Thus, he sent his wife to the day care center during the day time and therefore he obtains the respite time. Furthermore, through the regular meetings and company of the dementia family supporting groups, both the caregivers and the patients can obtain better living quality. Keywords: Male caregiver, Narrative study, Care experience, Pressure adjustment, Social support