Cuidadores informais da pessoa idosa com transtorno mental: Um estudo sobre a resiliência

Abstract

Population aging is considered a worldwide phenomenon, and one of the implications of the demand for population aging. It is a change in the epidemiological profile, characterized by an increase in diseases characteristic of this population, including mental disorders. Due to this illness, some elderly people lack a caregiver, in which they come to provide daily assistance, facing complex and challenging situations, however they have been adapting or overcoming difficulties in the care process. Thus, this study aims to analyze the process of resilience of informal caregivers in the care of the elderly with mental disorder, users of a CAPS, in the perspective of the Bioecological Theory of Human Development. And as specific objectives: To outline the profile of the elderly's informal caregiver; Identify the relationship between social variables (sex, age, marital status, educational level) with the resilience of informal caregivers of the elderly cared for in a Psychosocial Care Center; And to analyze the resilience process of informal caregivers in caring for the elderly with mental disorders, users of a Psychosocial Support Center (CAPS). This is a descriptive and exploratory research with a mixed approach (qualitative and quantitative), the participants of this study consisted of 23 informal caregivers of elderly people with mental disorders attended by CAPS I of the municipality of Boqueirão-PB, being the choice through the following inclusion criteria: being over 18 years old, being the primary informal caregiver of the elderly person with mental disorder who is a CAPS I user; have been the primary informal caregiver of this user for at least six months. For this purpose, we used Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model as a theoretical and methodological framework and as instruments for data collection the socio-demographic and labor questionnaire, the resilience scale and the semi-structured interview. For the analysis of quantitative data, descriptive statistics were used, using the SPSS for Windows program - version 17.0. And for qualitative data it was the Thematic Content Analysis. This analysis of the qualitative data obtained, followed the proposal of the PPTC (Person, Process, Context and Time) components of the Bioecological Model. The results showed that caregivers had a high mean resilience of 131.6 and there was no association between the degree of resilience and social variables. Most of the caregivers were female, married, Catholic, with children and with a low level of education. They claim to feel affected by the care process and do not have or have completed training to provide care. It was apprehended that caregivers have dispositions, resources and demands (skills and attitudes) that stimulate ties with the context of care, and interpersonal relationships with the elderly over time, such as empathy, determination, coping, attitude, competence, responsibility , initiative and uses tolerance and adaptation as a strategy for difficulties. It was concluded that caregivers have high and medium resilience. Finally, caregivers are active and the environment influences them when they act in the context of care, and it is these influences that mobilize the emergence of protective and risk factors that reverberate in resilience.