高齡與非高齡家庭照顧者之照顧現況與需求比較

Comparison of Caring Status and Needs between Elderly and Non-elderly Family Caregivers

家庭照顧者是長期照顧體系中最主要的照顧提供者，隨著高齡社會來臨，照顧者 高齡化的現象亦隨之而來；然而目前的長期照顧政策是依據失能狀況提供不同程度的 服務方案，並未考量照顧者可能因為年齡差異性而有不同需求。因此本研究目的在比 較高齡／非高齡家庭照顧者的照顧現況與需求，採用問卷調查法，收集 76 位高齡照顧 者與 119 位非高齡照顧者的資料，並檢定兩組的差異。研究結果顯示：雖然兩組家庭 照顧者都感受到沉重的照顧壓力，他們之間的需求卻不盡相同。非高齡家庭照顧者中 需兼顧工作與照顧家人的較多，建議規劃友善家庭照顧者的職場環境，例如：彈性上 班、有薪家庭照顧假等。高齡家庭照顧者則是教育程度較低、自覺健康狀況較差、罹 患疾病數較多、有困難的照顧項目較多、對服務的滿意度較低，且高齡照顧者其被照 顧者平均年齡較高，每日照顧時數較多、照顧年數較長；高齡者需要更多的關懷與協 助，如：增加居家服務時數、到宅指導照顧技巧、照顧問題電話諮詢、志工關懷訪視 等。

Family caregivers play the most important role as primary care providers in long-term care system. With the coming of aging society, the phenomenon of aged caregivers is prevailed nowadays. Although the current official policy of long-term care offers different levels of service options according to degree of disability of the disabled person, it lacks in considering the divergent needs of care-givers for their various age. Therefore, the objective of this study is to compare the needs and the current care-giving status between aged and non-aged family caregivers. Adopting a questionnaire survey, we collected data from 76 aged and 119 non-aged caregivers and then investigated the difference between the two groups of age. The results indicated that while both aged and non-aged family caregivers indeed received heavy pressures in care-giving, the needs for them were not the same. For most non-aged subjects, considering their simultaneous needs in coping with work and care-giving, it was advised to create friendly workplace environments such as flexible working hours and paid family care leaves. However, aged family care-givers were often poor educated, aware of their bad health condition, suffering from disease frequently, encountering large amount of difficulties in many care-giving items, and less satisfied with care service. Aged care-givers also took care of higher-aged care-receivers in average, spent more hours for family care each day, and took more years to look after their receivers. It is suggested that aged-caregivers need higher level of concern and assistance in many ways, such as increasing home service hours, directing care-giving skills at home, telephone consulting to care problems, and providing home visit service by volunteers.