"Life Skills Difficulties Faced by Family Caregivers New Challenges Faced by Japanese Society as a Result of the Changing Profile of Family Caregivers"
Saito Mao, Matsuda Ryozo and Tsudome Masatoshi
last update: 20151225
Life Skills Difficulties Faced by Family Caregivers New Challenges Faced by Japanese Society as a Result of the Changing Profile of Family Caregivers
Saito Mao, Matsuda Ryozo and Tsudome Masatoshi
This paper contends that changing profiles of carers may lead to
increase of carers with life skill difficulties, exemplified by a case
study on Japan, where informal care has been necessary, even with
formal long-term care, to achieve decent quality of life of elders
with disabilities at home. Changes in household composition, life
styles, and social values resulted in increase of male carers. A
survey, conducted by two authors (Tsudome and Saitoh), revealed that
male cares have life skill difficulties that had not been pointed out
by prevalent discourses on elderly care, supposedly, for the first
time in Japan.
Questionnaires on difficulties in daily life and physical caring,
distributed by home care providers, were collected from 295 male
carers, who are in his 60s or 70s. 58.3 % of the respondents carried
the care for their wives; 36.9% for their father or mother. The most
common difficulties in daily life that the respondents faced were
cooking (43.4%), sewing (40.3%), and cleaning (23.7%) (figures in
parentheses indicate percentages of the respondents with
difficulties). The most common difficulties in physical caring were
bathing (33.6%), toileting (32.5%), and washing hairs (17.6%).
Furthermore, most of the respondents felt burden of caring and
isolation from their social networks before providing care.
The difficulties faced by male carers can be interpreted as results of
their life courses, suggesting female cares may face those
difficulties in some conditions. Policies to address life skill
difficulties shall be developed in addition to provision of formal
long-term care.
REV: 20151225