Psicologia: teoria e prática
Print version ISSN 1516-3687
Abstract
GUIMARAES, Claudiane Aparecida and LIPP, Marilda Emmanuel Novaes. A look at the caregiver of cancer patients receiving palliative care. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2011, vol.13, n.2, pp.50-62. ISSN 1516-3687.
The aim of this research was to check how the main caregiver of cancer patients receiving palliative care experiences her/his act of caring and how the imminent patient death affects her/his level of stress. The participants were 10 family caregivers. For data collection an interview script and the Inventory of Stress Symptoms were applied. The analysis was quantitative and qualitative. The results reveal that 100% of the participants presented stress. One observes the act of caring is experienced as a changes generator which bring specific difficulties and needs, besides, the imminent death of a relative experienced by the caregivers developed a myriad of feelings. The results are similar to those of other researches and corroborate the need of creating specific and continuous interventions to the main caregiver, in order to foster their health, quality of life, and mourning response.
Keywords : stress; cancer; caregivers; quality of life; death.