“If we don’t have family, we don’t have a life”! Conceptions of popular class families caregivers of frail elderly people

Abstract

This research has a quality input that aims to reveal the concepts of popular class families caregivers of frail elderly people at their home, concerning the aspects that involve the meaning of care taking to the frail elderly in the family context. The methodology used is a case study of the ethnological kind. The data were collected by means of participant observation and interview with four families. Through the data analysis four themes related to the families conceptions were identified: the meaning of health – sicken, the meaning of family, the meaning of old age, the meaning of taking care of a frail elderly family member.