Anxiety, stress, coping styles and life experiences of alzheimer's caregivers

Alzheimer's disease affects every aspect of caregivers' lives, such as family relationships, friendships, business life, and physical and psychological well-being. Depending on the time spent in the process of providing care to the patient, it is observed that the individuals who give care have significantly tiredness, social isolation and their relations with the environment are deteriorated. Physical and emotional difficulties, anxiety felt in the death of the patient, change and reorganization of roles in the family bring along economic difficulties and create severe psychological stress in caregivers. Caregivers of Alzheimer's patients use various methods unique to them in order to adapt to the conditions they are in against the vital threats created by the process and to get out of this process stronger. In the literature, "coping" is the definition that develops to explain the whole of the methods used and that serve to strengthen the individual, both due to a specific stressor and in maintaining daily life. Coping is defined as the ever-changing cognitive and behavioral efforts that the individual uses to respond to certain internal and / or external demands that exceed or force personal resources. In the study, quantitative data on the anxiety states and coping methods of individuals caring for Alzheimer's patients; Their vital experiences during the process were obtained through in-depth interviews. Therefore, mixed model has been preferred to learn all these. State / Trait Anxiety Scale and Short Form Coping Scale were used to measure caregivers' anxiety and coping strategies. While the information used for in-depth interviews and quantitative data has similar qualities, answers to different questions were sought in both methods. Quantitative and qualitative research data were collected simultaneously and analyzed separately. Finally, it has been observed that knowledge on the meaning of empowerment for caregivers of Alzheimer's patients is rather limited. In order to facilitate empowerment of caregivers, the data obtained were evaluated and concluded in terms of empowerment approach, in order to deeply understand the current situation, how and under what conditions it might be empowered, and how empowered individuals would preserve their new status.