To Be treated at home: evaluating burden on main carer during palliative support of cancer patient

• Autor(a) principal: Ferreira, Maria de Fátima
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34632/cadernosdesaude.2009.2787

To take care of a palliative cancer patient at home constitutes a big challenge for the main carer, in the family. Supporting the family and the carers is a central concept in the practice of palliative care. The main carer might be exposed to a big pressure with an overload of informal care and expects to find adequate answers to his needs from the professionals, in order to obtain and assure proper global care to his family member. This study was developed to explore and describe the workload of the main carer of the palliative cancer patient at home. It is a descriptive, transversal and quantitative study. The instrument is the Zarit Scale, with an accidental sample, consisting by 36 family members of patients cared at home by Equipa de Cuidados Continuados Integrados de Odivelas (Home Palliative Care Team based on the Health Center).The goal is to describe the Overload of the Family/Main Carer with Palliative cancer patient at home, through the identification of different variables. The main conclusions of the study are: Citizens of the study are in majority of the feminine sex; Average of ages situated in the 54.1 years; In the majority, they are couples and daughters; On active service and to exerting professional activity in the tertiary sector; Low schooling; Delivering care for more than twelve months;Evidence of Overload of the main carer in the fields: Sensation of overload lived by main the carer; Abandonment of self-care; Fear in the delivering of care/fear of his family member; Loss of the Social and Familial role in the assumption of the carer tasks; Economically changes; Feeling of Guilt in relation to the incapacity to offer more to his family member. In the reality, the generality of the citizens of the study show that they present an overload of work in taking care of their cancer palliative patient at home. This justifies the need of the professionals to minimize this overload, in order to promote their quality of life. We reinforce this is the way to practice effective and good palliative care.