As a part of the elderly health care from the Health Center of Botucatu Medical School (UNESP - São Paulo - Brazil), a support program for caregivers has been made, with the following general aims: to preserve the caregivers’ quality of life and to improve conditions of family assistance for the patients. This program has a two-hour meeting once a week for 10 to 12 weeks, coordinated by two psychologists. Psychodramatic techniques are used, focusing on the caregiver’s role and its social and emotional consequences. Theoretical information is given through group discussions and audio-visual resources. Themes that are discussed include: motivation and meaning of caregiving; warning signals of physical and emotional tiredness of the caregivers; the elderly’ possibilities of taking care of themselves and asking for help; ways of improving the communication in case of visual, auditory or cognitive deficiencies; ways of favoring independence and autonomy; and ways to deal with problems related to hygiene, mobility, aggression, irritation, hallucinations and delusional ideas of the elderly. In the first meeting of each group (composed by 10 to 20 members), two scales are applied: a scale for evaluation of the emotional impact (burden) on the caregivers (Zarit et al., 1980) and the Self Report Questionnaire - SRQ - (Mari and Williams, 1986) which identifies possible psychiatric disorders. These scales are reapplied at the end of the program, in order to check possible changes. The obtained data indicate favorable changes in the expression of emotions, establishment of limits and a return to leisure activities.
Elderly; Caregivers; Elder care; Health; Quality of life
