The study reports on the burden of family members who are taking care of demented persons, which was carried out in 11 counties of Transylvania between 2015 and 2017 with 100 families who are looking after a person with dementia. Sampling was carried out in an empirical study with 50 families in their own home and 50 families who have chosen institutional care, but not more than one year before the interview. In the research, we sought answers to what kind of coping stages the families are going through in the care of demented persons while facing a series of losses? What strategy do they use during the caring process? How do they live the change of the personality of a loved one? How do caring roles change? Where is the critical point in the burden when the family chooses the institutional care? In addition to the quantitative analysis, we also focused on exploring the subjectively experienced burdens of caring with a deeper focus group investigation.
Keywords: caregiver family, dementia, role sharing – role conflict, supportive background
