Pressures Of Caregivers For The Elderly In Rural Areas And Counter Measures

Steeped in a Chinese cultural that prioritizes filial piety, family members serve as theprimary caregiver for the elderly with home as the basic unit for nursing. Due to the inevitabletrend of aging society, the care-giving roles which family member plays are receiving moreand more attention. Factors such as economic status, mental and physical wellbeing ofcaregivers all have a direct bearing on the quality of life for the elderly. The focus of thisstudy is to raise public’s awareness of living conditions of the elderly as well as those of thecaregivers. Increasing caregivers’ livelihood will boost the quality of life for the elderly, thuscontributing to the welfare of the society as a whole.This survey takes qualitative method and collects information through self-preparedquestionnaires and semi-structured interviews. It covers the experiences and feelings of14caregivers, and analyzes the causes for pressures and their counter measures. The studycenters on following questions:①What roles do caregivers play and how they define their roles? This chapter exploresfive roles of spouse, son, daughter, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, and discusses eachrole’s respective scope and content. While social and cultural norms have stakes in moldingdifferent roles, personal values and beliefs matter as well.②What pressures do caregivers confront? There is a Chinese proverb “being bedriddenrisks the loss of love from children”. This saying describes the burden care-givers shoulderwhen they are required to attend to needy elderly all the time. This chapter proceeds fromvarious perspectives including health, emotion, finance and social participation to classify andanalyze the pressures, and presents readers with unembellished records of interviewees. Thestudy indicates that caregivers suffer varying degrees of pressure from all above-mentionedaspects, and some of their hardships are beyond words.③How can caregivers ease their pressures? Different kind of pressure calls for differentmeasure. This chapter ponders on self-adjustment and psychological rewards of caregiversduring the helping process, and displays multiple measures for mitigating pressures. The aimis to provide reference for caregivers and future caregivers. This study finds that caring the elderly relies not only on responsibility but also sense ofsacrifice. Because caregivers face enormous pressures from many perspectives, theydefinitely need to seek ways to alleviate stress so as to do a better job in caring the elderly.The establishment of social support system can offer more help to caregivers, and push thequality of caring work to a higher level.