This article explores the factors associated with the perception of psychosocial or health support needs among 1,900 caregivers of people with disabilities or functional impairments in Chile.
The study found that caregivers who were widowed or divorced, spent more hours providing care, helped with more personal care tasks, or experienced greater caregiving difficulty were independently associated with a higher likelihood of reporting support needs.
Caregivers who frequently felt low energy or anxiety were about 1.7 times more likely to have unmet psychosocial or healthcare needs compared to those who felt that way only occasionally. Those who often felt a low sense of control were 2.5 times more likely to need support than those who rarely felt that way.
These findings are important for long-term care systems. They show that caregiving and mental health-related factors, which can potentially be improved through more formal support services, are more strongly linked to unmet support needs than less modifiable factors such as age or marital status.
The results suggest that respite time can be crucial for caregivers, not only to help them regain a sense of control over their lives, but also to support better self-care, social engagement, and continued participation in the labour market, all of which have been shown to help prevent physical, mental, social, and financial strain among carers.
