Battling Alone on Multiple Fronts - How Gender Norms Affect the Soldiers' Wife as Caregiver in India.

IF 1.1 Q4 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
Indian Journal of Palliative Care Pub Date : 2024-07-01 Epub Date: 2024-08-03 DOI:10.25259/IJPC_79_2023
Savita Butola, Damini Butola
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives: Women form the backbone of caregiving in palliative home care throughout the world. They put in more intense care for longer hours, perform more intimate tasks, and face more physical and mental strain, comorbidities, anxiety, and depression. However, gender norms that perceive caregiving as a natural part of femininity dismiss this as part of their duty toward their family, thus making their care work invisible, taken for granted, and devalued. This results in women bearing more burden with less support and no appreciation and suffering more negative mental and physical health outcomes than men. Globally, women perform 76.2% of unpaid care work. India ranks a dismal - 135 out of 146 countries in the 2022 Gender Gap report. Less than 10% of Indian men participate in household work. Women in rural India continue to be less educated; the majority are not allowed to travel alone and are culturally not involved in decision-making, which is done by the males. Wives of armed forces personnel are forced to live without their husbands for long periods. This leads to even more challenges when they also need to take care of patients with life-limiting illnesses. No study has been done on this population till now. This study aimed to explore the experiences of the women in armed forces families, caring at home for patients with palliative needs.

Materials and methods: This was a qualitative study based on a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with adult caregivers - either serving personnel or their dependent family members.

Results: Female relatives were the main caregivers in 13 cases; the majority belonged to rural areas, were between 22 and 47 years of age, most were married, had young children, and reported health issues of their own. Major themes that emerged include lack of information, the expectation of being a caregiver irrespective of ability/needs, physical and psychological burden, neglected emotional needs, difficulty in traveling alone, social isolation, loss of employment with the financial burden, stigmatisation and ill-treatment of widows by in-laws.

Conclusion: 'Soldier's wives, who must stay alone, face increased burdens as they face not only the physical and emotional burden of caregiving but also the additional challenges of living alone, mostly in rural Indian society, where gender norms are still deeply ingrained. Creating awareness about this vulnerable community among palliative care providers is required to improve services for them. There is also an urgent need for identifying, challenging, and addressing stereotyped roles and disparities in healthcare systems, practices, care goals, and policies by sensitising staff, educating families, developing gender-sensitive resources and support systems, initiating care discussions, and undertaking more gender-related research.

在多条战线上孤军奋战--印度的性别规范如何影响作为照顾者的士兵妻子。
目标:在世界各地的居家姑息护理工作中,女性是护理人员的中坚力量。她们的护理工作强度更大、时间更长、任务更繁重、面临的身心压力、合并症、焦虑症和抑郁症也更多。然而,性别规范认为护理是女性的天职,将其视为对家庭的责任的一部分,从而使她们的护理工作被忽视、被视为理所当然、被贬低。这导致女性承担了更多的负担,却得不到更多的支持和赞赏,身心健康也比男性受到更多的负面影响。在全球范围内,妇女承担了 76.2% 的无偿护理工作。在《2022 年性别差距报告》中,印度在 146 个国家中的排名令人沮丧--135 位。参与家务劳动的印度男性不到 10%。印度农村地区的妇女受教育程度仍然较低;大多数妇女不得单独出行,在文化上也不参与决策,决策由男性完成。武装部队人员的妻子被迫长期在没有丈夫陪伴的情况下生活。当她们还需要照顾患有临终疾病的病人时,就会面临更大的挑战。迄今为止,还没有针对这一人群的研究。本研究旨在探讨武装部队家庭中的女性在家中照顾需要姑息治疗的病人的经验:这是一项定性研究,基于对成年照护者--现役军人或其受抚养家庭成员--进行的半结构化访谈的主题分析:在 13 个案例中,女性亲属是主要的照顾者;她们大多来自农村地区,年龄在 22 岁至 47 岁之间,大多数已婚,有年幼的子女,并报告了自己的健康问题。出现的主要问题包括:缺乏信息、期望成为照顾者而不考虑能力/需求、身体和心理负担、情感需求被忽视、独自旅行的困难、社会隔离、失去工作和经济负担、姻亲对寡妇的侮辱和虐待。结论:"必须独自留守的军人妻子面临着更大的负担,因为她们不仅要面对照顾他人的身体和情感负担,还要面对独自生活的额外挑战,她们大多生活在印度农村社会,那里的性别规范仍然根深蒂固。需要提高姑息关怀服务提供者对这一弱势群体的认识,以改善为他们提供的服务。此外,还迫切需要通过提高工作人员的敏感性、教育家属、开发对性别问题有敏感认识的资源和支持系统、发起护理讨论以及开展更多与性别相关的研究,来识别、挑战和解决医疗保健系统、实践、护理目标和政策中的陈规定型角色和差异。
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来源期刊
Indian Journal of Palliative Care
Indian Journal of Palliative Care HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES-
CiteScore
2.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
57
期刊介绍: Welcome to the website of the Indian Journal of Palliative Care. You have free full text access to recent issues of the journal. The links connect you to •guidelines and systematic reviews in palliative care and oncology •a directory of palliative care programmes in India and IAPC membership •Palliative Care Formulary, book reviews and other educational material •guidance on statistical tests and medical writing.
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