Caregivers For Terminally ill Patients

Running head: RATIONALE DEVELOPMENT
RATIONALE DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

RATIONALE DEVELOPMENT
1
Level of anxiety and stress among caregivers for terminally ill patients
Background
The family caregivers play a crucial role in individuals’ health and long term care
providing a significant portion of care for the ones that is chronically ill and is also ageing. It has
been estimated that the family caregivers provide about $ 350 billion annually (Gérain & Zech,
2019). Family caregivers can be relatives, friends, or neighbors, who provide assistance to
patients with an underlying chronic diseases or disabilities. Evidences have suggested that
caregiving is deleterious to one’s health, still not much researches or attention have been paid to
the wellbeing of the informal caregivers (Bevans and Sternberg 2012). In comparison to the non-
caregivers, the caregivers experience psychological burden which can cause impairment in the
immune function, coronary heart disease and early death.
Literature review
A range of research papers regarding the psychological burden of the informal caregivers
caring for terminally ill patients, are available. According to Bevans and Sternberg, (2012) the
psychological burden experienced by the caregivers of the cancer patients are greater than that of
the burden experienced by those patients suffering from dementia. This can be due to the fact,
that the cancer patients tends to suffer for a longer period of time and required rigorous care both
from formal as well as the informal caregivers. A comparative study by Gérain and Zech (2019)
have bound that informal caregivers are tend to be suffering from burnout more than that of the
formal caregivers, because the formal caregivers are either nurses or trained health care workers,
who are used to with dealing and taking are of more critical patients. Furthermore it is also a part

RATIONALE DEVELOPMENT
2
of their profession. Whereas informal caregiving are individuals who are voluntarily caring for a
relative of fried who had fallen ill. Informal caregivers are subjected to burnout and stress after
spending prolonged time with sick patients. It has been stated that spouses are the main informal
care giver for the cancer patients. The spouses have to look after the multidimensional
requirements of the family, members with cancer, nursing, management of the treatment
associated symptoms, financial, economic and spiritual assistance (Li, Mak and Loke 2013). As
a consequence, spouses might experience stress, burnout and depression. A study by Li, Mak and
Loke (2013) focused on “spouse Burnout syndrome” as some of the spouses caring for their
husbands with chronic diseases manifested symptoms compared to the formal caregivers who
had experienced burnout. This is in line with another study where it has been highlighted that
some informal care givers faces strain in comparison to the professionals facing burnout.
Despite the promising premises, this work have actually received very small attention.
Surprisingly, (Goodwin, McCormack and Campbell (2017) have referred to the sense of
depersonalization, where a caregivers feels detached emotionally from the person being cared
for. Considering the extreme situation, this can go as far as reification of the person being cared
for. Personal achievement embraces the dimension that is positive of the helping experience.
Geng et al. (2018) have also analyzed the role of caregivers caring for the cancer patients.
The caregivers caring for the cancer patients tend to suffer from disrupted mental health in
comparison to the physical health. Distress and grief is very commonly associated with the
family of the cancer patients that is many cases may cause long term depression. Damage or
expectation causes grief and depression is a disorder that is regardless of the conditions. Grief of
pre-death has been associated with the increased rate of anxiety among the caregivers. Presence
of terminal diseases like cancer itself can be a principal sources of depression and anxiety among