“There's really no other option”: Italian Australians’ Experiences of Caring for a Family Member With Dementia

Abstract

Dementia is a gradual and progressively degenerative disease that is accompanied by challenging changes in the affected person's emotions and presenting behaviors. Caring for an individual with dementia is globally recognized as being a considerable burden. This article employed an interpretive phenomenological analytic approach to examine the caregiving experiences of nine Italian Australian caregivers residing in Perth, Western Australia. The findings reveal that the Italian community's familism values directly impact on the ability of predominantly female caregivers to access informal and formal dementia support care. The wider implications of this finding are discussed in relation to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) caregivers.

Keywords:

• dementia caregiving
• culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities
• Italian Australian migrants
• formal and informal support
• care recipient expectations
• cultural values