DISTRESS EXPERIENCED BY OLDER FAMILY CAREGIVERS OF PERSONS WITH DEMENTIA COMPARED TO OLDER NON-CAREGIVERS

Abstract

with Alzheimer’s disease to align with three Alzheimer’s stages. Advocacy groups are suggesting three stages of care: 1) Mild stage suggests caregivers support and help, 2) Moderate stage suggests caregivers must help the patient with time-consuming/distressing tasks and 3) Severe stage suggests caregivers provide around-theclock care for the patient with Alzheimer’s disease. The netnographic data suggests around-the-clock caregiving starts much earlier than the severe stage as suggested by other scales. The netnographic data and secondary data suggest multiple caregivers may be responsible for different levels of caregiving. Therefore, a caregiver may enter the journey at any level. Conclusions: Levels of caregiving do not always align with the three Alzheimer’s stages, and a new classification of care is needed. The three Alzheimer’s stages seem too broad, and more detailed levels appear to be needed. This research can be a starting point for defining these new detailed levels to better support caregivers. More research is needed to determine how to support primary and secondary caregivers throughout the progressing levels of caregiving.