Family Experience and Care Decision in Chinese Families Caring for People With Cognitive Impairment

Abstract

Taking care of persons with cognitive impairment implies not only management of cognitive symptoms, but also a range of psychological and behavioral problems, physical impairment, and also, family conflicts. The tensions and struggles between the person and family caregivers may subsequently lead to decisions that discourage the person to live in the community. However, in-depth examination of the ambivalence and struggles experienced by persons with cognitive impairment and their families, especially in Chinese societies, was lacking. In this symposium, findings from several qualitative and quantitative investigations (2 studies in Hong Kong and 2 studies in Mainland China) will delineate different family issues surrounding people with cognitive impairment. Wang and colleagues conducted semi-structured interviews to understand the psychological and daily-living challenges experienced by these families and their corresponding coping strategies. Wang and colleagues investigated the different pathways to psychological wellbeing between adult-children caregivers and spousal caregivers. Tang and colleagues adopted a fixed-schedule ecological momentary assessment over a 7-day period to test the link between caregivers’ everyday perception of quality of life and their daily caregiving routines. Chan and colleagues interviewed 24 caregivers of people with dementia to understand their reasons for and struggles of getting residential care service even they did not want to. The above studies encapsulated the dynamics of the psychological aspects resulted from family caregiving of people with cognitive impairment.