Grupos de ajuda mútua com cuidadores informais de pessoas com demência: empowerment do cuidado/Mutual help groups with informa caregivers of people with dementia: empowerment in the care

摘要

Dementia currently represents a major health and social problem worldwide, to which Portugal is not unaware. Caring for a person with dementia is a very demanding task for the caregiver, to take on this role, it ceases to perform its daily activities, facing many challenges. The Mutual Help Group (MHG) is a care model based on sharing and helping each other within a social, emotional and educational context. We designed a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study to explore and describe the experiences of informal caregivers after six months of participation in GAM. For content analysis, we used the Web Qualitative Data Analysis software (WebQDA) for reference counting and categorization of themes. This study was developed in the northern area of Portugal and is part of the Projeto CuiDem- Cuidados para a Demência. Nine informal caregivers of people with dementia and three GAM health professionals (facilitators) participated in the study. After coding and reference counting, four categories were integrated for analysis: i) coping and the prospective view of future ii) construction of a support network; iii) the rescue of daily life and the importance of time management; and iv) promotion of care competence. Our findings converge with those in the literature and reinforce that mutual help groups for informal carers of people with dementia enhance personal and instrumental skills, including recognizing the importance of self-care and time management, and fostering empowerment in daily life.