Singaporean Caregivers’ Experiences of Placing a Relative into Long Term Care

ABSTRACT

Objective: Caregivers experience many difficulties and challenges with the process of providing care particularly at times of transition, such as when the care recipient moves into a nursing home. This qualitative study aims to understand caregiver experiences of this important process.

Methods: Twelve interviews were conducted with caregivers with an older relative in a nursing home in Singapore. The resulting data was analysed through thematic analysis.

Results: Five themes were identified: Filial and cultural expectations shape caregivers’ experience of pre-placement decisions and post-placement; View of the placement decision; Continued impact of caring; Engagement with the institution and Maintaining the relationship.

Conclusions: Caregivers were found to place significant emphasis on cultural values, specifically on filial piety. This impacted their caregiving role prior to placement, when making the decision to place their relative into a nursing home and in their continued involvement after placement. Despite the changing role, the placement experience was fraught with persisting difficulties involving maintaining the relationship with the resident and developing a new relationship with the nursing home.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregiver
• culture
• filial piety
• long term care
• older adult
• transition

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Rajini Ramanathan and Dr. Paul Fisher for their contributions to the conception and design, analysis, and interpretation or validation of the data; for the drafting of the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and for approval of the version to be published. Ethical approval for this project was granted by the James Cook University Human Research Ethics Committee (Application Id: H4219D). No known conflicts of interests arose in the conduct of this research.