Family Capabilities of Taiwanese Families Experiencing Chronic Heart Failure

Abstract

Using the Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response Model as the guiding theoretical framework, this hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of individuals and families adapting to life with chronic heart failure (CHF). We analysed 17 interviews with either individuals or families from a medical centre in a metropolitan city in Taiwan. The processes of adaptation involved families’ efforts to reduce or manage demands by utilising their existing capabilities, to strengthen and expand coping strategies, and to change meanings that shaped how they responded to their situations. The findings demonstrate the roles of family capabilities and family meanings in the process of a family living with CHF.