Caring for stroke patients by relatives: Social support and coping strategies

Objective: To assess the coping ability and the social support of relatives looking after patients who have had a stroke. Of special interest was to ascertain how coping behaviour and social support differed between short-term (caring period of 3-6 months) and long-term (caring period longer than 2 years) carers. Differences in social networking between relatives and a control group (no caring tasks) were also assessed. Subjects and methods: A questionnaire based on the well-established >>Berne coping forms<< and another on social support were filled in by 20 relatives (18 women, two men; mean age 50.6 years) after a short-term caring period of up to 6 months and 20 relatives after a caring period longer than 2 years (14 women, six men; mean age 64.9 years) and a control group (27 women, 10 men; mean age 57.8 years). Results: Among the total group of relatives the coping strategies (listed by order of importance) were: >>passive cooperation<<, >>acceptance<<, and >>lending a hand<<. The short- and long-term carers showed no significant differences in these strategies. However, there were significant deficits in social support between the relatives and the controls as to practical support (P < 0.05), social integration (P < 0.01), social support received (P < 0.01), social burden (P < 0.01) and the caring persons (P < 0.05). There was no difference regarding social support between the short- and long-term carers. Conclusions: The results confirm the importance of social support for relatives who look after stroke patients. Every form of psychosocial help should be given at the time the patient is discharged to home care. This would require day clinics and shortterm places in nursing homes.