When the day comes. Women as caregivers

Description

The vast majority of ailing elderly people are taken care of at home by a family member, usually a wife, daughter or mother. Women, traditionally, are expected to cope with family responsibilities and to provide care without financial rewards. While their efforts reduce society's longterm care costs, the caregivers go largely unnoticed and get little help from others. In this documentary we hear from four women who have provided continuous care for a loved one. We see their painstaking and exhausting routines as they massage, groom, dress, clean, cook, and respond to demands. The women speak candidly of the physical and emotional stress of this responsibility. Although they gain emotional satisfaction, they are at high risk themselves, subject to burn-out, illness and isolation. They are in need of support systems equally as much as those they nurture.

Runtime

29 min

Subjects

Genre

Date of Publication

1991

Database

Alexander Street

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