Elderly that care other elderly: this group needs palliative care?

Introduction: The chronic situations associated to changes in family contributed to increasing numbers of older people who cares for another elder. In this sense, it would be relevant to know the characteristics of these caregivers to measure the need of palliative care. Aim: To identify the profile of elderly caregiver who cares another elderly at home. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study with elderly caregivers who care for an elderly at home. Data were collected by questionnaire that includes Barthel Scale, Lawton and Brody Scale, Index of complexity of pharmacotherapy, Geriatric Depression Scale and Mini Mental State Examination. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 22 for Windows. Results: Participated 30 elderly caregivers with 74±6.9years. The most are female, married and with low education. All are independent in daily living activities while in instrumental activities 10 have partial dependency and 3 severe. They refer, on average, 3 diseases and taking 6 drugs/day. Twelve have depression and 3 have cognitive deficit. The difficulties are physical requirement, absence of support and reduced reporting to manage critical events. The strategy adopted is question the social worker but when occurs the intensification of symptoms most caregivers use the emergency. As for community resources, they highlight the home support service. Conclusion: Characteristics of caregiver difficults the effective exercise of the role and promoting health problems. It is important expand the research but also develop tools of evaluation/monitoring and intervention centered on long-term care and palliative care philosophy.