Con-Tatto, percorsi di caregiving: analisi di un’esperienza gruppale di caregivers con pazienti affetti da demenza

In Italy, recent estimates by ISTAT (2007) show a steady growth of the elderly population and the impoverishment of the working age population. Among the consequences ofthis trend is the increase in diseases related to the aging process such as dementia (CENSIS 2007). The work we present focuses on possible therapeutic support strategies and plans ofthose who deal with the disease as well as caregivers. The Research-Action Con-Tatto [ConTact], born in a Residential Health Care in Lombardy, Italy, will examine, step by step, the long and tortuous path of taking care of our sick loved ones and the many complicationsthat arise following the onset of an insidious disease, such as that of AD.Through the various stages of the Research-Action, it was possible to come to an understanding of individual pathways in a perspective of group analysis interpretive analysis, withthe aim of promoting new opportunities for caregivers in their approach to the disease androom for growth and planning. What is being proposed by an analysis of the caregivers’ group experience is therefore a mapping of caregiving pathways and experiences, through which it is possible to reconstruct all the most important moments related to the person’s disease and care.