Older carers caring for their old family members: The case of Antalya

Longer life expectancy and changes in social conditions have affected the caregiving and receiving processes of older individuals. Academia and social politics consider adult children as main caregivers for care whereby the older carers are often ignored. However, the families are aging similarly as the general population does. Caregiving by older individuals is more pronounced accordingly. This research is focused on the caregiving experiences of older carers. Life course approach and quantitative research design have been used to gather a holistic evaluation of those experiences. In-depth interviews using the narrative technique have been conducted in a two-year period face to face and on the telephone with 24 older carers caring for their older relatives. Two interviews gathered in different periods enabled us to consider caring as a continuous process and reveal the change in caring experiences. The data of this dissertation is composed of main findings of older carers individual biographic life course and caregiving experiences gathered by narrative restorying and thematic analysis. Caregiving trajectories generating caregiving conditions from pre-caregiving until post-caregiving period have appeared. Data showed that older carers are caring either for their spouses or parents, their peers or older individuals besides their disabled children and grandchildren. Older carers have also found to care for multiple persons either at the same time period or consecutively. Even though the care practices of older carers caring for the parents or spouses are found to be similar, their caregiving conditions and their motivations may vary. Besides, health and economic conditions and social relations of multiple patients' caregivers within the caregiving trajectories are more restrictive and negative compared to the solo caregivers. An important finding is that the numbers of male older carers were increasing with higher age of the carers. Older carers were found to face difficulties during caring and need support for care due to their decreasing physical capacities and health condition. On the other hand, they felt positive motivation towards caregiving. Recognition of old age-specific caring needs and timely interventions may support the continuity of informal family caregiving. Keywords: Older Carer, Caregiving Trajectories, Life Course, Quantitative Research.