Educational practice for the autonomy of the informal caregiver of elderly people

Abstract

Caring for a dependent elderly involves complex and difficult tasks that can be aggravated by the caregiver's lack of training and information and that generate insecurity and fears. This situation can damage the elderly's care and it confirms the need for nursing actions that might improve the caregiver's coping skills, through educational practices. This study contemplates the current practices in health education regarding the elderly informal caregiving and aims to propose an emancipatory educational practice, based on Paulo Freire's model that values and respects cultural values and empirical knowledge. We propose an educational practice grounded in the perspective of the informal caregiver's autonomy, for instance the organization of workshops aiming to stimulate critical conscience and the exchanging of experiences.