La stigmatisation des aidants familiaux de personnes atteintes par la maladie d’Alzheimer
Aging populations in western societies contribute to the raise of chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer disease. The issue of aging also echoes in recent political reforms and more generally in the way we manage public services. In this context, Quebec’s public health regime has known diverse modifications concerning “first line caregiving” (soins de première ligne). New actors of the public system have acquired roles and responsibilities defining particular issues. We address one of these issues. This research aims at specifying the social processes inherent to the isolation of family caregivers helping a relative suffering from Alzheimer disease. The stigmatization process and related microprocesses are the principal mechanisms analysed. The data derives from in-depth, semi-structured interviews, realised with a cohort of sixty family caregivers followed longitudinally since the beginning of their care trajectories. A qualitative scheme bears out our investigation. We have analysed a sample of twelve participants using a sequential approach. Three typical processes were identified: social separation, transitory stigma and social anomia. Results suggest that the caregivers’ support networks are subjected to a setting of conditions structuring social stigma, the recurrent condition being an issue of power implying the social control of the ill relative. Caregivers who also are the spouses of the ill relative are the most inclined to stigmatization in early trajectory.
Social networks sequential analysis social support social control