The impact of day centres on community elderly care givers.

Abstract

The continuity of care within the elderly community helps maintain a quality of life that an older person should expect in their later years in terms of personal happiness and fulfillment, whilst also remaining within the local community. Day centres have a common objective of enabling people to remain independent, socially integrated and to prolong their lifestyle in the community, ultimately preventing feelings of loneliness and social isolation. However the majority of health care needs for older adults who remain in the community is provided by informal carers, yet it is only recently that locally the needs of informal carers have begun to be given due attention to be highlighted. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of twenty informal carers of elderly persons attending a day centre in a locality in Malta while exploring the benefits and barriers of these centres. Data collection was obtained through the use of a self-administered structured questionnaire using quantitative data obtaining a response rate of 100%. Microsoft Excel database was used for the data analysis of the survey questionnaire. Findings demonstrate that the majority of the informal carers feel well supported in their care giving role. The study revealed that not all the participating care givers are in fact experiencing to the full the benefits of the day care. Although, overall the carers are satisfied with the centre, findings suggest that several existing activities and services need to be given more attention. As a result of this research study, several recommendations for practice have been suggested. These include more widespread day centres, night shelters, improvement in the existing adult day care programs and a better link between staff and the carers. Together with these suggestions, more research and studies have been proposed, namely more education on the services available and availability of services provided to people in remote areas.