Low Lisa Pau Le, Chien Wai Tong, Lam Lai Wah, Wong Kayla Ka Yin
School of Health Sciences, Caritas Institute of Higher Education, 18, Chui Ling Street, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong.
School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
BMC Geriatr. 2017 Apr 7;17(1):81. doi: 10.1186/s12877-017-0473-9.
Understanding the difficulties and needs of the family carers in taking care of a person with ID can facilitate the development of appropriate intervention programmes and services to strengthen their caring capacity and empower them to continue with their caring roles. This study aims to explore ageing family carers' caregiving experiences and the plans they have to provide care for themselves and their ageing children with mild or moderate intellectual disability (ID).
A constructivist grounded theory will be used to interview around 60 carers who have a family member with mild or moderate ID and attending sheltered workshops in Hong Kong. Constant comparative analysis methods will be used for data analysis.
The theory will capture family caregiving experiences and the processes of carers in addressing caregiving needs, support received and plans to continue to provide care for themselves and their relatives with ID in their later life. New insights into the emerging issues, needs and plights of family caregivers will be provided to inform the policies and practices of improving the preparation for the ageing process of the persons with ID, and to better support the ageing carers. The theoretical framework that will be generated will be highly practical and useful in generating knowledge about factors that influence the caregiving processes; and, tracking the caregiving journey at different time-points to clearly delineate areas to implement practice changes. In this way, the theoretical framework will be highly useful in guiding timely and appropriate interventions to target at the actual needs of family carers as they themselves are ageing and will need to continue to take care of their family members with ID in the community.
了解家庭照顾者在照顾智障人士时所面临的困难和需求，有助于制定适当的干预计划和服务，以增强他们的照顾能力，并使他们有能力继续承担照顾职责。本研究旨在探讨老年家庭照顾者的照顾经历，以及他们为自己和患有轻度或中度智力残疾（ID）的成年子女提供照顾的计划。
将采用建构主义扎根理论，对约60名在香港参加庇护工场、家中有轻度或中度ID患者的照顾者进行访谈。数据分析将采用持续比较分析方法。
该理论将捕捉家庭照顾经历以及照顾者满足照顾需求、获得支持的过程，以及他们在晚年继续为自己和患有ID的亲属提供照顾的计划。将提供关于家庭照顾者新出现的问题、需求和困境的新见解，以为改善ID患者老龄化过程的准备工作的政策和实践提供信息，并更好地支持老年照顾者。所产生的理论框架在生成关于影响照顾过程的因素的知识方面将具有高度的实用性和有用性；并且，在不同时间点追踪照顾历程，以明确界定实施实践变革的领域。通过这种方式，该理论框架在指导针对家庭照顾者实际需求的及时和适当干预方面将非常有用，因为他们自己正在老龄化，并且需要在社区中继续照顾他们患有ID的家庭成员。
