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The Role of Caregivers in the Care of Older People

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The Role of Family Physicians in Older People Care

Part of the book series: Practical Issues in Geriatrics ((PIG))

Abstract

In this chapter, caregivers’ roles in the care of older people are discussed in detail. With older people having multiple comorbid diseases, such as osteoarthritis, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, stroke, and chronic kidney disease, and numerous geriatric syndromes such as polypharmacy, urinary incontinence, malnutrition, depression, dementia, falls, and frailty, their increased dependence on daily living activities causes them to have difficulty maintaining their lives independently, and so they need a caregiver. Caregiving involves various tasks ranging from helping the older people in basic and instrumental activities of daily livings to providing complex health care. Caregiving domains can be grouped as follows: (1) assisting with daily living activities; (2) emotional and social support; (3) health and medical care; (4) care coordination; and (5) decision-making. Each of these areas includes a number of separate tasks. In performing these roles, caregivers face stress in physical, psychological, social, and financial terms, which causes caregiver burden. To reduce caregiver burden, it is very important to provide caregivers with systematic training about older people’s care and to develop supportive health strategies while they perform caregiving tasks.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geriatric Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Bezmialem Vakif University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pinar Soysal

  2. Expert Patient, TANDEM Association, Modena, Italy

    Francesca Rossi & Donatella Portera

  3. Primary Care Department of Modena, Modena, Italy

    Donatella Portera

  4. The Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

    Lee Smith

  5. Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Lin Yang

  6. Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Lin Yang

  7. Unit for Aging Brain and Dementia, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey

    Ahmet Turan Isik

Authors
  1. Pinar Soysal
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  2. Francesca Rossi
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  3. Donatella Portera
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  4. Lee Smith
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  5. Lin Yang
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  6. Ahmet Turan Isik
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pinar Soysal .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Primary Care Department USL Toscana Sud Est, Grosseto, Italy

    Jacopo Demurtas

  2. Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Nicola Veronese

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Soysal, P., Rossi, F., Portera, D., Smith, L., Yang, L., Isik, A.T. (2022). The Role of Caregivers in the Care of Older People. In: Demurtas, J., Veronese, N. (eds) The Role of Family Physicians in Older People Care. Practical Issues in Geriatrics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78923-7_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78923-7_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-78922-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-78923-7

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