Meeting own needs and supporting ability to care: Family caregivers’ and health care professionals’ perspectives on professional support provided through a potential mobile application

Abstract

Background A majority of persons with dementia in Sweden live in their own homes and are often cared for by family members. Caring for a family member may be a positive experience. It may, however, also be a negative experience as symptoms like disturbing behavior and delusions may be difficult to encounter. The burden of being a family caregiver has been shown to affect the caregivers’ quality of life. Objective To explore stakeholders’ perspectives on a potential mobile application through which family caregivers could be supported by healthcare professionals in caring for a person with dementia living at home. Method Eight individual interviews with family caregivers and a focus group with eight healthcare professionals specialized in dementia care were analyzed using content analysis method. Results The findings suggest that a mobile application can support family caregivers to meet their own needs in terms of finding structure in everyday life, how to get information and support in their own pace, and how to care for themselves. The findings also suggest the necessity of accessing relevant contact networks to be supported in the ability to care for a family member with dementia. Conclusion Healthcare and social services mediated support provided through user-friendly mobile application has the potential to support family caregivers both in taking care of a person with dementia and caring for themselves. Moreover, it is important that the information provided to family caregivers is personalized according to the needs of the family caregivers as the family member’s dementia advances.