Barriers to Home Care for Older Adults: The Perspective of Informal Caregivers in South Tehran

Introduction: Longer life expectancy increases the number of elderly people who require long-term care. The presence of a caregiver at home prevents or postpones the placement of the elderly in care facilities. Identifying the caregivers’ viewpoints about the care clarifies the role of various factors in providing quality care. The purpose of this study was to assess barriers to home care from the perspective of Iranian informal caregivers of older adults.Material and Methods: This is a qualitative study. Data were gathered between January to April ۲۰۲۱. ۱۷ informal caregivers were chosen on purpose from those who referred to organizations in southern Tehran. Inclusion criteria were ۱۸ years or older, at least one month of care experience, and cared an average of six hours per week. Interviews were semi-structured, and they were conducted via telephone. We used MAXQDA ۲۰۱۸ software to analyze coded data.Results: Barriers to home care for older adults were categorized into three domains: (۱) Individual barriers (physical, mental, and social burden of care as well as personal characteristics of the caregivers), (۲) interpersonal barriers (psychobehavioural characteristics of the older adult and misbehavior of people around the caregivers) (۳) care system barriers (inefficient institutional / organizational infrastructure, moral issues, and inefficiency in public policy).Conclusions: Despite advances in the health and social care system in recent years, the needs of informal caregivers have been ignored in health and social care systems, which can become a barrier to providing optimal care for the elderly. Specific contextual challenges among Iranian caregivers and a lack of social and healthcare support for families hindered

Keywords:

informal caregivers , family carer , elderly , barrier , home care , Iran.