Informal support was assessed on the basis of the number of informal carers or the number of hours of assistance received (10 studies) and other measures (16 studies). Formal support was assessed based on questions about the use of services such as meals on wheels or daycare (19 studies). The perceived quality of the relationship with the care recipient was assessed using assessments of closeness to the current or past relationship (7 studies). Caregivers` physical health was assessed using individual indicators of perceived health (30 studies), symptom checklists (14 studies), and questions on frequency of doctor visits and medication use (2 studies). Adaptation was assessed using the Ways of Coping questionnaire (Folkman, Lazarus, Pimley & Novacek, 1987) and related instruments (8 studies). Indeed, the laws of the Succession Code applicable to medical decisions do not grant such power to spouses. The code places a spouse only in the category or class of “family members” without explicitly indicating priority for the spouse. While many health care facilities and providers can create a hierarchy within the class of family members and place the spouse at the top, there is no exclusive right for a spouse to make health decisions for his or her spouse with a disability. In American families, spouses are often the first to assume family responsibilities (Brody, 1981). When no spouse is available or able to care for frail older adults, adult children often take on the role of caregiver and sometimes share family responsibilities with their own spouse.
Based on data from the 1989 and 1999 National Long-Term Care Survey and the Informal Caregiver Survey, it is estimated that 41.3% of caregivers of frail seniors are adult children and 38.4% are spouses (Wolff & Kasper, 2006). In the channeling study of 1,940 frail seniors, 4.4% of their primary caregivers were stepdaughters (Stephens & Christianson, 1986). Merrill (1993) reported that 12% of non-marital caregivers in the National Long-Term Care Survey were daughters-in-law. If your husband is eligible for Medicaid nursing home benefits, you, as a wife, are limited to a Community Spousal Resource Allowance (CSRA). Currently, the CSRA has monthly revenues of $2,980.50 and assets of $119,220. Your possessions (except for your home, as long as you live there) and your income beyond these limits should be spent on taking care of them. Despite these limitations, several conclusions can be drawn from this study. In terms of caregiving research, we observe that studies of a small number of caregivers of certain types of kinship tend to combine subgroups and compare assisting spouses with other caregivers or adult children with other caregivers. Given the greater similarity between children and stepchildren, we conclude that it is more appropriate to combine these two groups than to group spouses with children or stepchildren. Second, there were only a small number of studies on stepchildren; Further research is needed on this group.
Third, given that differences between groups can only be observed in domain-specific stress measures (e.g., our results suggest that more domain-specific measures should be used in future studies. Fourth, because most effect sizes were heterogeneous, future studies should identify study characteristics that moderate the magnitude of differences between groups. For example, differences between spouses, children and stepchildren with respect to stressors and psychological distress may vary from one ethnic group to another. Fifth, a wider variety of variables would be useful to better understand differences in responses to care. For example, other comparative studies on motivation to take on the role of caregiver (e.g. Gräßel, 1997), coping processes and dimensions of nursing stress are needed to identify unmeasured sources of psychological distress or resilience. Secondly, there are conflicting results when it comes to psychological stress of children and stepchildren: adult children report more depression, but also more elevators. The relationship with parents is generally closer than with in-laws, which can lead to more psychological distress for adult children when their parents are suffering (Cantor, 1983), but also more satisfaction when they are able to relieve suffering or feel that they are returning the favor to parental care during childhood (Wright & Aquilino, 1998). Physical health was worse for spouses than for children (d = −0.31) and stepchildren (d = −0.36) – which H2a supports.
We found few significant differences in terms of social resources. Spouses reported less informal support than adult children (d = −.17), but did not differ from children in terms of formal support or perceived quality of the caregiver relationship. In support of H2b, adult children reported more positive relationships with the foster care recipient than stepchildren; a moderate difference (d = 0.71). Spouses also reported slightly lower instrumental adjustment (such as problem solving; d = −0.14) and emotional adjustment (such as ventilation adjustment; d = -0.22) than adult children. We had not hypothesized about that. Judge Judith Sanders dismissed Hildegard Borelli`s complaint and was upheld in a 2-1 ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeals. Justice James Perley`s opinion indicates that the legal obligations of marriage involve mutual self-care, making an additional promise of care meaningless. THE RIGHT TO MAKE HEALTH CARE DECISIONS is a protected individual right that belongs exclusively to the patient. More recently, federal and state laws have extended the scope of this right`s exclusivity to the realm of privacy by limiting the sharing of patient information and records. Thus, a patient`s spouse, life partner, and other family members face increasing barriers when seeking information in the patient`s records – although some health care providers, perhaps out of compassion, ignore legal restrictions. The court denied a new hearing requested by the woman, who said she had been promised a significant portion of her husband`s multimillion-dollar estate if she personally cared for him during his illness. “As strange as it may seem, I took care of my ex-husband`s parents for six years – 15 years after we divorced!” she explains.
“Above all, I had a good relationship with my former father-in-law because he was a wonderful grandfather to my daughter. It was a trip I was completely unprepared for, but I learned more about myself in those six years than I could have ever imagined. My husband and I have been separated for 10 years and all our property has been divided for a long time.
0