Spouses' Experiences of Emotional and Existential Support When Caring for a Frail Partner Late in Life

TL;DR

This study explores how older spouses experience emotional and existential support while caring for a frail partner late in life.

Contribution

The study provides insights into the specific types of support that promote emotional and existential well-being in caregiving spouses.

Findings

Spouses value an atmosphere where sadness is allowed and shared experiences are safe.

Emotional and existential support helps spouses reflect and articulate their feelings.

Support should address physical, social, personal, and spiritual dimensions of life.

Abstract

The ability to care for a frail older partner late in life often entails the need for support and help from others, a need that sometimes can go unmet. Exploring spouses' views of emotional and existential support can guide further development of supportive structures, which in turn can promote family caregivers' existential health and well‐being. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore what spouses experience as supportive of their emotional and existential concerns when caring, or after having cared for, a frail partner late in life.

The study was explorative and based on multistage focus group interviews with older spouses (n = 10) divided in two groups who met three times each. The data were analysed using conventional content analysis. The checklist ‘Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research’ (COREQ) was followed when presenting the study.

The spouses described the importance of an atmosphere in which being sad was allowed for as much time as needed; it was safe to share experiences together with others, they could receive compassion and comfort from others, and they were free to feel hope, let their previous life go and dare to think of their future.

Providing emotional and existential support creates an atmosphere that allows older spouses to reflect together with others, listening to their own and others' thoughts, and thus be able to put feelings and experiences into words. A suggestion for organising such support considers the physical, social, personal and spiritual dimensions of people's lifeworlds.

Nursing interventions aimed at improving emotional and existential support for older spouses should primarily target transitional phases in life and focus on relational aspects.

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