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Experience of family caregivers of hospitalized older people in Kolkata, India
Author(s) -
Bhattacharyya Tulika,
Chopra Chatterjee Suhita
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.2933
Subject(s) - isolation (microbiology) , social isolation , medicine , nursing , public hospital , family caregivers , gerontology , psychology , psychiatry , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Summary In India, family caregivers (FCs) play a major role in providing care to their older kin during hospitalization. This article explores the challenges encountered by them while providing care in a public hospital. It draws upon empirical insights obtained through interviews with 54 FCs and field observations. The findings show that the hospital was not congenial for FCs and exposes the factors impeding their caregiving role. FC experience was found to be highly complex and fraught with multiple practical challenges during admission, in‐hospital treatment, and at discharge. All these had repercussions on various aspects of their own life and well‐being like poor health outcomes, financial stress, and social isolation. The article concludes that the needs, preferences, and challenges of the FCs need to be considered to make hospitals conducive for FCs of older people.