Typology of informal carers providing care to family members after cerebrovascular accident

Abstract

Introduction: The study is underpinned by the research of people providing care to relatives after a cerebrovascular accident outside the sphere of public institutions – so called informal carers. The aim was to create a typology of these carers, reflecting their way of constructing identity, their attitude to their own emotions, their reflections on and experience with caring, their forms of communication, and how they work with information. Methods: The research was led by a qualitative approach with the use of the principles of biographical research. It is based on thirty semi-structured interviews. Areas were identified within these interviews in which the carers reflected on themselves. Through these areas, the carers differ in the ways in which they experience their roles of carers. The research was complemented with a questionnaire survey in order to acquire demographic and other data from the same sample. Results: The result of the study is a typology which contains five pure types of informal carers who provide care to family members after a Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA): (1) rational, (2) self-construing, (3) depressive, (4) traditional and (5) optimistic. Discussion: The results of the study are discussed in the context of caregiving in general, and in comparison with research focusing on the ways in which carers cope with decreased autonomy, emotions, gender, or their approach to obtaining information. Conclusions: Within the above types, carers differed in the variety of ways in which they controlled their emotions, in the different relationships to self, or in their reflections on the future. Which category an individual carer fell into depended on the volume of care they provided, how long they had been providing it, the possibilities to obtain support or assistance, and the personality of the carer. This typology may be useful from the analytical perspective, as well as from the perspective of potential interventions aimed at the dissemination of information and the sharing of the carers’ experience.