Improving Coping Abilities among Caregivers of Patients with Cerebrovascular Stroke

Cerebrovascular stroke is a condition that affects both patients and family members who provide care and support. Because stroke is an unexpected traumatic event that suddenly forces family members into a care giving role, and experience an overwhelming sense of burden, the present study was conducted to assess the perceived stress and stressors facing caregivers of patients with cerebrovascular stroke, their burden, patterns of caring themselves ,their coping abilities and designing and implementing nursing intervention program for improving caregivers' coping abilities toward their stressors and burden. The study was carried out at the Outpatient Clinic of Neuropsychiaty in Ain Shams University Hospitals. The sample included 50 caregivers of patients with cerebrovascular stroke. Tools used for data collection were 1) Questionnaire dealing with socio-demographic characteristics, general health condition of caregivers, physical, economical, psychological and social stressors facing them and their awareness toward patterns of caring themselves. 2) Perceived Stress Scale to measure the caregivers' perception of stress 3) Burden Interview Questionnaire which indicates how often the caregivers feel toward caring their patients 4) Assessment dependence level questionnaire to assess ADL and IADL of patient. 5) Coping Inventory to assess caregivers' coping abilities. The main results showed that the nursing intervention program was effective in improving caregivers' coping abilities toward their perceived stress and burden. This study recommended that, caregivers-focused intervention programs should be provided for family caregivers emphasizing on, assertive training to deal with burden of care giving based on caregivers' actual needs' assessment and awareness programs are needed about self care and stress management techniques for improving their coping abilities with their stressors and burden of care giving. Keywords: Caregivers, Cerebrovascular Stroke, Coping abilities, Nursing interventio