Family caregivers' awareness and perceived access to formal support care services available for older adults in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

Globally, the number of older adults is increasing. This demographic transition is placing new demands on societies to provide comprehensive systems for the long-term care of older adults to complement the efforts of family caregivers. In line with this, we investigated the family caregivers' awareness and perceived  access to formal support care services available for older adults in Enugu State, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design, questionnaires were used for data collection from a sample of 195 respondents with experience of caregiving who participated in the study. The data were analyzed using the  Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 20). Frequency and percentage distribution tables were used to represent results while chi-square (χ2) was used to test the hypothesis formulated in the study. The findings of the study show that family caregivers are aware of the support care services available for  older adults in Enugu state. Findings have also shown that respondents perceive older adults' access to formal support care services in the area as low. Finance, ignorance, and lack of social support were the perceived barriers to accessing formal support care services by older adults. It is recommended that efforts to  improve the accessibility of formal support care services for older adults should leverage on improving these perceived barriers. Tele- counselling, teletherapy, and door-to-door approaches should be adopted to improve access to formal support services for older adults in Enugu State Nigeria.