RELIGIOUS COPING IN INFORMAL CARERS OF PATIENTS WITH LOW AUTONOMY

• Grant number: 10/03075-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2010
• End date: June 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health
• Principal Investigator: Rodolfo Franco Puttini
• Grantee: Mayra Naves Clemente
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FMB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Patients with chronic diseases may suffer big loss of autonomy depending on the illness he has. When this occurs, the patient needs the help of an informal caregiver to help him in the task before simple.Informal caregiver is who has no graduation in health area but plays the role of assisting the patient supplying his disabilities. This task can be taken by parents, children, spouses, friends, and, in most cases, it is a stressful activity for the one who performs it.Due to stress, the caregiver makes use of coping strategies with the objective of minimizing the overload incurred. Thus, coping can be understood as a process used to handle the demands of the person-environment and are related to the receiving a lot of cultural influence.A particular case of coping, religious coping, is widely used in Brazil due to the great influence of religion in Brazilian culture.Due to high levels of stress in which the informal caregiver goes through, in most cases, support has to play its role beyond the remarkable influence he has in the process of health and illness of the patient, researches in the field become important to obtain references to support informal caregivers.