OBJECTIVE: Describe barriers and facilitators in care perceived by informal caregivers of older adults with moderate and severe functional dependence on primary care.
DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive research.
SETTING: Family Health Center located in Santiago, Chile.
PARTICIPANTS: Informal caregivers of older people (n=12) users of the care program for people with severe functional dependence on the Family Health Center.
METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the informal caregivers. Conventional content analysis was used to identify and define the main themes.
RESULTS: From the twelve interviews carried out, various categories and subcategories emerged: 1)Care facilitators: support networks, sharing experience, the importance of love and affection in the care process, coping mechanisms of the caregiver, and self-learning. 2)Care barriers: dissatisfaction with the quality of care from the health system, lack of support from the networks, older adults' greater degree of functional dependence, lack of tolerance of the informal caregiver, challenging behaviors of the functionally dependent older adult, and fear of delegating care.
CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the variety of experiences and challenges shared by informal caregivers when providing care to functionally dependent older people, which may contribute to the development of intersectorial policies to address it.
