| Summary: | This thesis explores the lived Experience of family Caregivers for those with stroke. The thesis is made up of two papers: a literature review, and an empirical paper. The first presents a narrative synthesis of the qualitative literature on the lived experience of family caregivers caring for those with stroke. The review identified 5 over-arching themes: ‘on becoming a carer’, ‘being a carer’, ‘acknowledging what was lost’, ‘managing the caring role’, and stroke providing ‘an added element’. The review highlighted the iterative process of caregiver adjustment. The similarities between the findings of the review and other caregiving groups are also discussed. The second paper used qualitative methods to explore how caregivers reconcile their own life goals with the demands of caregiving to better understand the impact of this on caregiver psychological well-being. Recent evidence has suggested that self-efficacy can influence life satisfaction and psychological well-being. However, to date, there remains little research investigating self-efficacy for important life goals in caregivers. The study found that whilst attainment of caregivers’ own life goals attainment was no longer a priority for carers, individuals appeared to re-directed their effort into more partnered activity and described benefiting from being involved in stimulating and valued activities.
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