Health planning community nursing intervention: training of informal caregivers through community resources

Introduction: Portugal is witnessing demographic changes in population, especially due to its aging, which leads to the increase of chronic diseases. The family is increasingly asked to play the role of informal caregiver so it is essential to promote its training. Objective: Contribute to the training of the informal caregiver using the resources available in the community. Methodology: We have used the Health Planning Methodology. For the situation diagnosis, we have used an instrument for data collection which is a questionnaire and assessment scales. The participants were all informal caregivers aged 18 or over who aid self-care dependent family members, on a home visit, by the USF (Family Health Unit) nursing team. It is a non-probabilistic sample. As strategies, we have used the Educational Training for Health and Health Communication. Results: After applying the data collection instruments, we proceeded to do their analysis. This revealed that the informal caregiver had a lack of knowledge on the resources available in the community, as well as a problematic lack in training in the health area. The interventions performed, for the training of the informal caregiver, were the creation of three information products about the resources that exist in the community. To enable early diagnosis, an educational session was held for health professionals on the use of the caregiver burden scale. Conclusion: Given the importance of the role of informal caregivers in providing care to the self-care dependent people, it is essential to draw their profile to adapt intervention strategies to their needs.