Social support in the primary caregiver of a person with Alzheimer's

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe the type of social support the primary caregiver receives from a person who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. To do this, a case study was conducted with a participant who is characterized as a primary caregiver. The participant is 21 years old and fulfills this function approximately two years ago, thus taking care of the integral and permanent care of the patient, who is 84 years old, is the grandmother of the participant without a blood relationship, five years ago suffered two cerebral infarctions and subsequently was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The data of interest were collected in three sessions of semi-structured interviews, subsequently the information was organized and classified into categories that gave rise to the qualitative analysis. The results obtained indicate that social support acts as a modulating variable that promotes the well-being of the participant, damping the presence and magnitude of primary and secondary stressors. In addition, the participant has two sources of social support, responding to the quantitative-structural and qualitative-functional perspective. Regarding the four functions of social support, the evaluative and instrumental functions are present, while the emotional and informational functions are absent.