MEN WHO ARE CAREGIVERS OF COGNITIVELY IMPAIRED WIVES: BECOMING EMBEDDED IN THE ROLE.
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 137
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Mental Health.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: The aim of this research was to examine and describe the experience of husbands who become caregivers of cognitively impaired wives. The purpose of the study was to discover the process by which men become aware of themselves as caregivers, the strategies they use in maintaining the role, and the consequences to them of the caregiving experience. This exploratory study used grounded theory methodology as the approach to data analysis. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews with 15 older white male spouses who had been caregivers of cognitively impaired wives for a period of at least one year. Subjects were interviewed for 2-3 hours using a semi-structured interview guide. Questions were asked relating to how subjects became aware that they were caregivers, what changes occurred in their lives and relationships because of caregiving, who they relied upon to help them with caregiving, and the meaning the experience had for them.

Data analysis revealed that caregiving necessitated a major role transition for these men. Becoming embedded in the caregiver role was a gradual process that began with attempts by husbands to normalize functional and cognitive changes in their wives and proceeded to recognition that they were totally responsible for the care and well-being of their spouses. Once embedded, husbands did not relinquish the role until their spouses died. Men became aware of themselves as caregivers when they could no longer normalize changes in their wives, when they recognized that they were assuming functions belonging to their wives, or when their wives were diagnosed with an illness that the husbands perceived as requiring a caregiver.

These caregivers received very limited support from family, friends, or formal service providers and were forced to become self-reliant in providing care for their wives. For most husbands in this group, becoming embedded in caregiving meant becoming embedded in a present that was tightly circumscribed by the needs of their impaired wives. They were forced to abandon plans that they had made for the future and were able to reclaim or reconstruct their futures only after their spouses died.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-01, Section: B, page: 0202.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1991.

School code: 0034.