Identity, support and health : the heterogenous experiences of retired husband carers

Abstract

Retired men contribute significantly towards the care of the elderly, with half of all carers over the age of 65 years in Australia, being men. Dementia is an age-related disease characterized by progressive cognitive decline over a number of years and often manifests in memory loss and personality and/or behaviour changes in the care recipient. Caring for a family member with a cognitive illness has been shown to be particularly challenging and is often reported to have adverse health impacts on the health of carers themselves Despite a growing body of literature about men's experiences of caring for dementia impaired wives, the impact of caregiving on the health and wellbeing of retired/elderly husbands caring for a dementia impaired wife remains unclear. Theoretical frameworks employed to understand retired men's experiences of caregiving largely focus on gender, therefore other aspects of identity such age and/or class are often missing from these analyses. The aim of this study is to investigate retired husband's experiences of caring for dementia impaired wives. The study explores how various aspects of identity (gender, class and age/generation) intersect to shape the husbands' caregiving practices and considers the implications of these practices, for their health and wellbeing at different points during the dementia caregiving trajectory. Findings suggest that gender, class, age/generation, location and faith and to some extent place, intersect in multiple nuanced ways informing the men's caregiving practices and their health at different stages of the caregiving trajectory. These intersections were significant in determining how the husbands navigated: their own corporeal decline, whilst caring for increasingly dependent wives; the health system to obtain their wife's diagnosis; and the husbands' capacity to seek and accept help and assistance from their informal and formal support networks. Seeking emotional support was problematic for all the husbands, but class and age/generation acted as mediators influencing at what stage in the caregiving trajectory such support would be needed and the likelihood of the husbands to seek and use this support. Findings suggest that intersections of gender, class and age/generation informed the extent to which the husbands were able to reap the emotional rewards of caregiving, develop softer masculinities and in doing so be positively transformed by their caregiving experiences.

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English