Anhörigkonsulenters uppfattningar om aktivitetsbalans hos anhöriga till personer med neurologisk diagnos : En kvalitativ intervjustudie

Sammanfattning: Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate caregiver counselor’s perceptions of occupational balance for family caregivers to people with neurological diagnose. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted digitally with nine caregiver counselors from different municipalities within Sweden and the collected data was analyzed with a qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. Result: The experience of caregiver counselors showed that family caregivers to people with neurological diagnose have a hard time maintaining satisfactory occupational balance. According to the caregiver counselors the caregivers take on new roles and with these comes new areas of responsibilities and activities, both in taking care of the sick relative as well as taking care of all the household chores. These new roles, activities and responsibilities makes it hard for the caregivers to maintain occupational balance and are at risk of getting ill with both mental illness as well as physical illness. The experience of the caregiver counselors was that aid from the community in form of home care and daily activity centers for the sick relative is something that gives the caregivers possibilities to maintain occupational balance by giving them more time to spend on self-care. Conclusion: The study shows that caregivers occupational balance is affected by the support they’re giving. By aiding the caregivers in their supporting activities in form of family interventions and taking the caregivers in accord in an early state occupational balance might be possible to maintain.