The Impact of Family Caregiver Attitudes on the Use of Community Services for Dementia Care

Abstract

This study examined the role of caregiver attitudinal variables, while controlling for other vari ables, in explaining the use of homemaking services, personal care services, transportation, caregiver services, and the number of services used in a sample of 82 wives of community- dwelling dementia care recipients. Seven scales measuring caregiver attitudes were empirically developed Attitudes representing caregiver preference for informal care, trust in service provid ers, and service inconvenience were associated with community service use. Together, the seven scales representing caregiver attitudes improved the explanatory models developed to explain the use of homemaking services, caregiver services, and the number of types of community ser vices used but not the models that explain the use of personal care or transportation services. These findings support the use of taking caregiver attitudes into account in attempts to under stand community service use in dementia care.