Family caregiver support groups: spiritual reflections’ impact on stress management

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Caregiving for people with neurodegenerative disease (e.g. Alzheimer's disease (AD); frontotemporal dementia (FTD)) is provided primarily by the family care system. Caregiving is taxing and much of the caregiving research is guided by a stress/adaptation theoretical perspective. Within this theoretical model, the role of spirituality in rendering meaning to the caregiver role remains unexplored. We conducted a qualitative analysis of expressions of spirituality and its meaningfulness during the caregiving journey within the context of an online video conferencing support group intervention program.Methods: Eighteen AD and six FTD caregivers participated in the Caring for Others evidence-based program consisting of 10 weekly virtual online support group sessions facilitated by experienced gerontological social workers.Results: Content analysis of the video-recorded group interactions yielded recurrent themes of caregivers’ spiritual reflections and their associations with managing caregiver stress responses.Conclusion: The findings inform professional observations of the importance of spiritual beliefs in understanding how caregivers ascribe both positive and negative meanings to critical life events and their management.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregiving
• dementia
• E-health
• meaning making
• spirituality

Acknowledgments

Thank-you to the caregivers who generously participated in sharing their experiences; the Baycrest social workers for their clinical expertise in facilitating these groups; RAs: Kimberley Wilson, Sharon Bieck-Shangrow, Christina Stergiou; and Lynn McCleary, Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, Brock University. This program of research has been generously supported by Bell Canada University Laboratories, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.