Abstract
At present, as the population ages, the need for care is rising, but at the same time, the number of people who could provide help is falling. Thus, the importance of effective support for informal care is growing. (Janečková 2020) The United Nations states that in 2017 there were more than 962 million of the world's 60- year-olds and older, meaning that since 1980 their number (382 million) has more than doubled.
Forecasts up to 2050 are expected to double further. The ageing process is furthest in Europe and North America.
In 2050, it is expected that in Europe, the generation of people aged 60 and over will reach 35%, in North America, 28% (UN 2017). This topic poses demanding challenges for our care system.
Social work is a field that should offer solutions to these current issues. We believe that there is a lack of a closer view focusing on the situation of informal carers.
The Czech Republic is a country where the family is seen as the primary bearer of responsibility for the care of ageing parents. At the same time, it is evident that the state's social services that would support the family in fulfilling this role do not currently have sufficient capacity.
The presentation will describe how the various components of the system (state, municipal, non-state) support the participation of informal carers and what is the practical experience of carers. It presents partial results of a qualitative study of informal carers.
The presentation aims to name the possibilities and limitations of the participation of informal carers in the long-term care system in the Czech Republic. Publications are often focused on caregiver's burdens, solving related ambivalences and difficulties in fulfilling caring and working roles.
We want to focus on finding caregivers' strategies for coping with difficult care situations. What do they see as the benefits of care? What do they find meaningful? We use a qualitative research strategy.
We design as our research tool in-depth unstructured individual interviews with tutorials. The target group is informal carers caring for a person requiring care at least in the second degree of needs.
The way of selection is the snowball method. The methodological procedure of data processing is grounded theory.
It will allow us to create a theoretical framework arising from the caregivers' narratives. The research aims to understand the life situation of informal carers better.
What are the key sources of caring motivation? Where do caregivers get strength from? Can a deeper understanding of the benefits of care help to reduce the perceived care burden? Where and how do caregivers look for positive content in their situation? What is the involvement of other actors in a caring network? What other aspects of support contribute to perceiving the usefulness of care? In today's world, the importance of family carers is increasing along with the ageing process. We see their willingness to care for their loved ones as very valuable.
We hope to help search for the opptimal form of care through these questions.