Bringing men in! : the lived experience of old men carers for their spouse in Malta

Abstract

In contrast to other stages in the life course, in old age, as husbands/partners retire from paid work, they become more available to care for their loved ones. It has been shown that in later life, the gender distribution of carers changes as the ratio of men to women carers increases. Yet, notwithstanding a recent growth in the number of international studies exploring old men in care roles, this sub-cohort of carers remains by far overlooked locally. Hence, this qualitative study set out to addresses this gap within local research. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study sought to explore the lived experiences of Maltese community-dwelling old men spousal cares and to find out how they negotiate their role within the feminised context of care. Data were collected through thirty semi- structured interviews with fifteen participants. All participants were actively engaged in care work during data collection. Some of the participants were taking care of a wife living with dementia whereas others were providing care to a wife with physical limitations. Data analysis revealed six group experiential themes and various sub-themes which shed light on various facets ranging from how old men embarked on the care work journey, how they espoused their husbands’ and carers’ role, the ways manhood impacted how they approached and coped with care work, the value of meaning and change in intimate relationships, the significance of familial and formal sources of support and the effects of COVID-19 as an extraordinary circumstance. Most of the participants echoed a variety of health issues that they themselves were experiencing, making their life as carers more complicated. Several recommendations including improving awareness amid formal and informal support care providers on this imperceptible nonetheless invaluable and growing sub-cohort of carers are outlined.