Providing care for informal/family caregivers and the Family Health strategy: contributions of a Literature review

Abstract

This is a literature review on the care provided for family caregivers in the Family Health Program (PSF), based on articles, dissertations, theses, books, monographs, guides and abstracts (from 1997 to 2008) in the Brazilian literature. We found 242 texts on the theme, 55% of which were articles. The year 2005had most publications. Most of the texts were produced by nursing professionals and were concentrated in their journals and higher education institutions in Brazilian's southeastern region. Texts were classified according to 10 themes: caregiver´s perception about the care provided to the family, impact/burden on caregivers, characterization and monitoring of caregivers by professionals, caregiver's routine/activities , theoretical study, literature review, guidance to caregivers, caregivers and their experiences and other themes. In the literature published between 2003 and 2008 only 20 texts were found on the theme of PSF, most of which were on the caregivers perception about daily care, We noted that this is a relatively recent theme in the literature studied, especially with regards to Primary Care. There is need for professionals to approach and carry out further studies in this area.