男性使用家庭照顧者支持服務情形之研究

家庭是老人照顧支持系統中的重要一環，而家庭中的照顧者不僅身處照顧的第一線，甚至長期以來都獨立承擔和面對照顧過程中的所有重擔和壓力。近年來家庭照顧者雖受到各個領域的重視、研究和探討，但大部份的研究對象幾乎都聚焦於女性照顧者，而比較少有人關注男性照顧者的感受、經驗和需要。值得關注和探討的是不同性別的照顧者，其照顧經驗、感受和所受到的影響，必然會有所不同。因此，為了進一步了解和探討這一群被社會所忽略的家庭照顧者的觀點、感受和經驗，本研究透過男性照顧者的角度切入，了解政府在積極廣設長期照顧各項服務據點的情形下，能否對不同性別的照顧者提供適切的支持服務，而支持服務的發展究竟又有何不足之處。同時，也期許本研究結果能對政府推動長照體系中的家庭照顧者支持服務，起到反思的作用和價值，讓男性照顧者也更有勇氣接下沉重的照顧工作。本研究採質性研究，以立意抽樣，深度半結構訪談方式訪談10位男性照顧者，每位約進行60至120分鐘，均經受訪者同意後採全程錄音方式記錄、轉譯為逐字稿進行質性分析，並針對每個議題歸納出主軸及概念。經訪談資料加以彙整後，得到以下的結論與發現：家庭照顧者支持服務的介入對接受訪談的男性照顧者而言，尚未起到支持的作用和緩衝其照顧壓力的效果，其中最核心的原因在於支持服務的提供仍傾向於站在女性的角度而未能站在男性的立場去設想，致使接受訪談的男性照顧者對於照顧支持服務體系介入的接納度並不高。最後透過受訪男性照顧者對支持服務使用之經驗，檢視現行福利政策與服務單位提出未來施行與建議：一、配置合理的資源，減少城鄉差異；二、整合網絡之資源，增加照顧者支持服務體系之量能及周全性；三、建置多元資訊管道，促進照顧者支持服務之資訊充分的流通等，作為未來改善之具體建議。

關鍵字

老人照顧；男性家庭照顧者；家庭照顧者支持服務

並列摘要

Families provide important support systems for the elderly. Not only are family caregivers the first line of care, but over the long-term, they also independently bear the loads and pressures associated with the process of caregiving. In recent years, even though family caregivers have attracted attention, research and discussion from a wide variety of fields, most of the research has placed its focus on female caregivers and it is rare to see any that gives emphasis to the feelings, experiences and needs of male caregivers. Worth focusing on and discussing is that for caregivers of different gender, the caregiving experience, sentiments and related impacts will inevitably be different. Therefore, in order to further understand and explore the views, sentiments and experiences of this group of family caregivers that has been overlooked by society, this study comes from the perspective of male caregivers to understand the way in which the government is establishing its various long-term caregiving service strongholds to see whether or not they are able to provide suitable support services to caregivers of different genders. It also looks at the areas where the development of support services may be insufficient. Meanwhile, expectations are that the results of this study will help initiate reflection and add value with respect to the government promoted family caregiver support services within the long-term caregiving system, and also help caregivers to become bolder to take on the heavy work of providing care. This study adopted a qualitative approach using purposive sampling and in-depth semi-structured interviews on 10 male caregivers. Each interview lasted between 60 and 120 minutes. With the consent of the interviewees, the interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data was then subject to analysis and the main trajectories and concepts of each topic were summarized. Once the data from the interviews was organized, the following discoveries and conclusions were made: For the interviewed male caregivers, the involvement of family caregiver support services has not reach a point where they were deemed supportive or effective in buffeting against the related pressures of caregiving. The most central reason found was that the provision of support services is still orientated towards women and does not take the position of men into consideration. Consequently, the male caregivers interviewed didn’t highly receive the involvement of the caregiver support system. Finally, through the experiences of the interviewed male caregivers in using the support services, a review was conducted on current welfare policies and service units upon which the following recommendations regarding future implementations are proposed: 1) Configure suitable resources to reduce the gap between urban and rural settings; 2) integrate network resources and increase the capacity and comprehensiveness of the caregiver support service system; 3) establish a larger variety of information channels to provide caregivers with ample information on the support services. These specific recommendations are proposed to help with future improvements to the system.