SUMMARY. The purpose of this article is to identify the needs resulting from caregiving, discuss how leisure education programs benefit caregivers and care recipients, and provide examples of specific leisure education strategies used in caregiver groups. Specifically, the needs of caregivers and care recipients ameliorated through leisure experiences and the incorporation of leisure education activities into support group processes are illustrated. Leisure education experiences conducted in support groups offer ways to address challenges faced by caregivers while promoting improved care recipient alternatives.
[Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: [email protected] <Website: http://www.haworthpressinc.com>] KEY WORDS.Caregivers, care recipients, support groups, leisure education
INTRODUCTION
Currently, caregiving responsibilities fall primarily to those who are 45ā54 years old (Cantor, 1992). Patterns of social change suggest reliance on family members to meet aging parentsā needs will be a challenge faced by not only relatives but friends and neighbors in the 21st century (Thomas, 1993). Caregiving is known to be a source of considerable burden adversely affecting caregiver well-being and the ability of the caregiver to complete caregiving tasks.
Caregiving reduces available discretionary time, social activities, and the freedom to make choices and decisions (Bedini & Guinan, 1996). Caregivers tend to be unaware of the importance of leisure to their own well-being (Keller, 1992). In a recent survey, when asked what was the most difficult aspect about caregiving, caregivers ranked loss of leisure second to experiencing a sense of isolation (National Family Caregivers Association/Fortis, Inc., 1998, p. 7). While leisure experiences reduce the burden of caregiving, caregiver responsibilities and attitudes tend to create barriers to leisure opportunities that can ameliorate the social and emotional stress of formal and informal caregiving.
Caregiver support groups are effective in helping family members use more positive coping strategies, enrich family relationships, and address caregiver and care recipient needs (Dupuis & Pedlar, 1995). Education and training strategies are used in support groups to teach coping strategies. Education and training strategies like leisure education are used in support groups to teach coping strategies. āLeisure education programs may provide the key to developing mechanisms of copingā (Hagan, Green, & Starling, 1997, p. 45). Leisure education programs offer social support and resource awareness that empower enhanced well-being behaviors among caregivers. Leisure education introduced during family support groups present the importance of leisure to life satisfaction and to relieving caregiver burden.
The purpose of this article is to identify the needs resulting from caregiving, discuss how leisure education programs benefit caregivers and care recipients, and provide examples of specific leisure education strategies used in caregiver groups. Specifically, the needs of caregivers and care recipients ameliorated through leisure experiences and the incorporation of leisure education activities into support group processes will be illustrated.
CAREGIVING AND LEISURE EDUCATION
Caregivers care for others in formal and informal settings. Formal caregiving happens during visits with older adults living in assisted living centers and skilled care units while informal caregiving occurs primarily in the home among family, friends and neighbors. Caregiving creates barriers to leisure participation and necessitates changes in leisure behavior (Bedini & Guinan, 1996). Barriers to caregiver leisure are created by guilt feelings, fatigue, lack of time, and financial strain (Bedini & Guinan, 1996). Caregivers tend to experience decline in social contacts and report a lack of freedom to do as they prefer (Bedini & Guinan, 1996). Caregivers also tend to be unaware of leisure resources for themselves and the care recipient (Olsson, Rosenthal, Greninger, Pituch & Metress, 1990).
Leisure education programs are a means of facilitating behavior change and creating awareness of options and choices that mediate negative lifestyle impacts such as the stress associated with caregiving. Leisure education activities are an avenue to social support, positive coping, relationship enrichment, and the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and leisure and resource awareness necessary to enhance well-being (Dupuis & Pedlar, 1995; Hagan et al., 1997/98; Keller, 1992).
Leisure education consists of several types of programs. Those most beneficial to caregivers include leisure awareness, resource awareness, leisure skill development and social skills training. Rogers (1997) reported caregivers are not always able to integrate leisure into their lives on a routine basis. Through a leisure awareness program, caregivers become aware of how leisure develops coping skills and how care recipients benefit from family leisure experiences. Leisure awareness programs provide caregivers and their adult children with ways of relating to one another (Pillemer & Suitor, 1998). Caregivers are unaware of their own leisure preferences and activities that may be adapted to satisfy care recipientsā intervention goals. Leisure resource awareness and skills development programs are conduits to acquiring activity skills and the ability to incorporate leisure into the caregiver and care recipientās daily routines.
Social skills, like asking for and receiving help and asserting oneself, are caregiver needs developed through social skills training that naturally occurs in support groups (Dupuis & Pedlar, 1995; Keller, 1992). Support groups are also a means of regaining ...
