Kamila Faleńczyk

ANALYSIS OF PROBLEMS AND THEIR DETERMINANTS AMONG FAMILY CAREGIVERS TAKING CARE OF CHRONICALLY ILL PEOPLE

Introduction. All over the world, family caregivers constitute the main pillar of the state care system. Nevertheless, they usually do not receive the sufficient institutional support. Therefore, an attempt has been made in order to identify the most frequently appearing problems among the caregivers and to define factors which influence their behaviour. Materials and methods. The research was conducted among 300 caregivers who take care of the chronically ill family members in domestic conditions. The research was conducted with the use of the diagnostic poll. In order to collect data, four following diagnostic tools were used: the modified Bartels Scale, the Caregivers Strain Index, Becks Depression Scale and the authors questionnaire. Results. Despite of the high self-evaluation in preparation of the caregivers, most of them pointed out numerous problems concerning the daily care of the chronically ill people. The respondents most frequently pointed out the following: the difficulties with moving the ill person (55.7%), lack of time (50.0%), difficulties with hygienic activities (49.3%) and difficulties with obtaining financial support (38.7%). Majority of the caregivers (69.3%) suffered from a great level of strain, while 43.7% diagnosed themselves with a gentle stage of depression. Occurrence of strain and depression and their intensity was strictly connected with the deficit level of wards self-service, intensity of care and the level of caregivers preparation. Functioning of the institutions responsible for supporting the chronically ill people and their families was assessed negatively by most of the caregivers (76%). Conclusions. Family caregivers of the chronically ill people pointed out a number of problems connected with daily care. They have also revealed a significant level of strain. The difficult situation of caregivers is affected by numerous factors, one of which is lack of the interdisciplinary support in fulfilling the caring function. For this reason, there is an urgent necessity of change in the current state care system, which would enable effective care-taking in domestic conditions.

The Functional Efficiency in Elderly Patients Treated with Hemodialysis

Background. During the last few years in the world as well as in Poland the number of patients with chronic renal disease is observed to grow. Thanks to the great development that was made in the field of dialysis therapy all the patients despite of their age are provided with a renal substitution therapy. Most of the dialyzed patients are constituted by elder people, not meeting the renal transplantation criteria. They have to be treated with special care because of the coexistence of many chronic diseases. Often the coexistence of many somatic illnesses and the dialysis therapy influence the functional efficiency that remains restricted, especially with elder patients. Objectives. The aim of these studies was to evaluate the functional efficiency in elderly patients treated with hemodialysis. Material and methods. The study involved a group of 48 respondents aged between 66 and 90 years. Standardized ADL and IADL scales were used and also the final part of the questionnaire containing the demographic information. Conclusions. From the undertaken research such conclusions were made: 1. For the patients the biggest number of problems among everyday tasks made taking a bath, the smallest number of problems was made with nutrition. In performing complex everyday tasks the biggest problem for the patients was connected with performing small home repairs. 2. Together with the increase of the education increased the level of independence in the evaluation of the basic everyday tasks. The biggest independence showed the patients with higher education. Also in the evaluation of the complex everyday tasks the patients with higher education showed bigger independence. 3. The period of the dialysis did not influence the functional efficiency of the respondents in the range of evaluation of the basic as well as complex everyday tasks.