title: Family caregiver strategies to encourage older relatives with dementia to use social services.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To elicit the strategies used by Japanese family caregivers in the community to encourage older relatives with dementia to use adult daycare and respite stays.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Older adults with dementia often require adult daycare and respite stays for their family caregivers to gain respite from care-giving. However, persons with dementia often face difficulty in new environments and timely access to sufficient services may be difficult to achieve. Few studies have examined how family caregivers encourage their service use.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 family caregivers who were caring for relatives with dementia at home between 2005-2007. Data were analysed qualitatively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Family caregivers used various strategies to encourage older relatives to use services, allowing the older adult to decide whether to use the service, yearning and searching for the least harmful service, tailoring the service to the older adult, persuading the older adult to use the service, conforming the older adult to the service and coercing the older adult to use the service. Different strategies were used depending on factors such as desperation in needing respite, willingness to do what is best for the older adult, confidence in taking care of the older adult and the anticipated response of the older adult to services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses should carefully assess caregivers' strategies in their attempts to encourage service use and should provide adequate assistance in accordance with those strategies.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Health Sciences, Gunma University, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukari
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takai
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamamoto-Mitani
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukahori
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012947:Social Work
keywords: Japan; community care; dementia; family caregivers; nursing; older adults; qualitative inquiry; respite; social support; strategy