特別養護老人ホーム入所申請に至る間の介護者の思いとサービス利用—介護者続柄別にみた特徴

Narrative Study of Caregiver's Experience and Utilization of Social Services Whose Care Recipients Are Waiting to Enter a Nursing Home : With Respect to Family Relationship, Spouse, Daughter-in-law and Adult Children

　在宅における特別養護老人ホーム入所待機者の介護者への訪問聞き取り調査により，申請に至る経過を介護者の続柄別に比較して示した．嫁介護者において申請に至る実感的介護期間が最も長く，次いで配偶者介護者だった．申請に至る間にサービス利用を導入していたのは嫁介護者や配偶者介護者で，実子介護者は申請直前，直後に利用開始する者が多かった．申請に至るまでの極限的状況として心中，親殺し，離婚などの言葉が語られたが，一方で「本人との心の交流」はすべての介護者において，その他「夫や家族の理解」，「サービス利用による休息」「同境遇者との交流」「病気への対応方法の理解」などがそのような状況を救っていることが示唆された．

　We interviewed 28 caregivers whose frail elderly care recipients are waiting to enter a nursing home. We conducted this study in order to examine how caregivers felt about the care recipient, when they applied for services to assist residential care, and how they felt when they decided that their care recipient should be institutionalized. We noticed that daughter-in-law caregivers tend to wait the longest to apply for institutionalization of their care recipients and that spousal caregivers wait the next longest. We also observed that adult children caregivers are the least common users of residential care services. Caregivers expressed that they want to die with their care recipient, to kill their care recipient or to divorce their husbands. In addition, they expressed that the experience of such high stress was reduced by feeling close to their recipient, by resting during residential care services, by sharing experiences with other caregivers, and by understanding the ways in which to deal with her care recipient.