Estratégias de enfrentamento utilizadas por idosos cuidadores de outros idosos em tempos de pandemia da Covid-19

Abstract

The elderly caregiver is an essential protagonist in times of population aging. Caregivers face numerous challenges in their work, in addition to the risks of overload. This experience can become more complex when an individual in the aging process assumes the responsibility of performing the role of caregiver for another who is also facing this process. Then, a peculiar scenario arises where the aging process and the COVID-19 pandemic tend to increase even more the overload and stress related to other issues of the exercise of the function, which can cause psychic and physical suffering. Faced with such statements, the following guiding question arises: how has the elderly caregiver faced the practice of daily care of another elderly person in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, considering their own need for care? The general objective was to analyze the coping strategies used by the elderly who care for other elderly people in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the Coping Theory developed by Lazarus and Folkman. It was a study of multiple methods from which two researches were carried out: one of the bibliographic type and the other that was a field research, both exploratory and descriptive, in the perspective of a qualitative approach. In this way, two stages were carried out: 1st Stage - integrative literature review, considering the need to understand the action of caregivers of the elderly, their confrontations, routines and viable and eligible protocols in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the approach from publications from the year 2020 to the first quarter of 2022; and 2nd Stage – field research, cross-sectional and descriptive, with elderly caregivers of other elderly people and participants of the Universidade Aberta a Maturidade (UAMA), with the participation of 17 elderly caregivers of other elderly people reporting their perceptions about the care process and which coping strategies they developed to deal with the circumstances experienced in the period of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It was observed that the participants were already experiencing a process of stress and overload before the pandemic and that after this period the demands for care intensified due to lack of support, high levels of anxiety and depressive behavior. In this way, it was possible to verify that the results found in step 01 were corroborated by the research experience carried out in step 02. Reaffirming the importance of considering the needs of these elderly caregivers who have had their individual needs neglected, while having to develop strategies of coping in the face of circumstances of physical and mental suffering to bear the burden of attributions that fall to them when caring for other elderly people. The relevance of this work is revealed, from the promotion of discussions about the reality of this part of the population and by enabling new forms of care and attention to their demands, as well as the urgency to continue developing studies that deal with the subject, aiming at the good -being and guaranteeing the rights of the elderly who care for other elderly people.