Family Vulnerability

Purpose:

Characterize the family transition experienced by caregivers of dependent people on self-care

Methods:

Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 2008) .

Results:

A main category emerges from analysis: “vulnerability”.

The vulnerability is related with social exclusion, since the dependent needs a lot of care, cope with social isolation and most of them are unknown of the health system. On the other hand, family caregivers aren´t prepare for care, they have conflict of interests with their usual roles in family and society. The resources available by the families usually are insufficient. They search for more support but is difficult to find the professionals and equipment’s to help them with this hard task.

Consequently, they marginalize themselves and there are feelings like “everybody forgets us”.

Conclusion:

The understanding of this complex transition is crucial to provide care with quality for these families.