Abstract:

Background:
Life expectancy and the ageing demographic are increasing around the world. With the increased life expectancy, there will be more health problems and thus a greater need for health and social care, including informal care within families. Some of the informal caregivers had been providing assistance for several years and resulting in a high burden of care. Consequently, informal care can result in high stress for caregivers, especially when coping resources are overwhelmed and the caregivers lack skills and knowledge. Caregivers have noted that it is important to be guided and trained to develop their coping abilities and care skills to empowering them.

Our target of the study was to improve the knowledge and skills of caregivers to provide long-term care at home, and we started to explore their experiences and needs. The research is based on the need to provide caregivers with support by training, and to prepare a training program based on the needs of caregivers. The qualitative study is conducted and was based on phenomenological and social constructionist approaches. The aim of study is to describe the needs of informal caregivers for improving the knowledge and skills to provide care at home. The research questions are: What are the needs of family caregivers to improve the knowledge and skills that have emerged while caring for a loved one at home? What kind of training topics should be included in the training program? What are the recommendations for developing the training program for informal caregivers?

Methods:
Sample was purposive. During from September to December in 2022 semi-structed interviews conducted with 12 informal caregivers. The interviews lasted from 25 to 114 minutes, and they were conducted and analysed by three researchers. Interviews were analysed using a qualitative content analysis.

Results:
Family members prefer to provide care at home for as long as possible, but they require access to different support services. They experience a sense of hopelessness because there is not enough support, and they feel left alone.

Conclusion:
It is important to involve family caregivers in the preparation of training programs so that the training program meets the needs of the target group. Also, to improve self-confidence of the caregivers and provide opportunity for caregivers to meet others in similar situation. Based on the needs of the target group we created and piloting the training program for informal caregivers, which consist of the 35 training hours and 8 models. The training program is piloting from October 2023 to June in 2024.

Keywords:

Informal caregivers, needs, training program.