According to Hilgeman et al (2009), the provision of care to ailing patients is a unique experience that has both short-term and long-term effect on the families involved. To some people, provision of care is a positive and fulfilling experience. For others, the experience can be traumatizing and create stress to their normal lives that can result to negative feelings. The negative feelings can be over the situation as well as the person for whom care is being provided. As a result, several studies have been undertaken on the subject of care giving role strain, which result from role changes in the provision of care.
Role strain occurs when one person, either the patient or the caregiver, tries to fit in their new role to the point that it affects their live-forever and their health as well. Toljamo et al (2011) in their article The Impact of Caregiving on Finnish Family Caregivers, tries to investigate the burden faced by caregivers, which can both be positive or negative. This study established that over 55 % of the caregivers interviewed were satisfied and considered Caregiving to be a worthwhile activity. The reason provided by the researchers is that the caregivers had a good relationship with the person they were providing care as well as their family, and therefore, coped well as a caregiver. However, about 33% of caregivers felt that they were trapped in their caregiver role. In addition, about 45% found Caregiving to be too demanding. This study indicated that, even if the health of the recipient deteriorated, the family caregiver’s experiences become more positive. The reason given by the researchers for this is that Caregiving was seen as a worthwhile activity and that the caregivers had support from family members (Toljamo et al 2011).
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The authors established that there is need to focus on interventions based on caregiver’s positive experiences of Caregiving. The authors observed that this is crucial in providing a protection against any negative effects that result from provision of care to the patients. This, indeed, would minimize any role strain on the part of the caregiver as well as the patient. This is in line with Hilgeman et al (2009) argument that individual stress factors are crucial in predicting role strain, which can be minimized by provision of resources or support.