An example from Italy

If you look at Italy, for instance, the latest data from 2018 indicate that caregivers are about 17.4% of the population (over 8.5 million people), 15% of whom perform the role of caregiver for their families. The budget law that came into force on 1 January 2018 first recognized the status of caregiver, defining it as the person who assists and cares for the spouse, the other part of the civil union between persons of the same sex, of the person who cares for a relative up to the second degree (L. December 27, 2017, No. 205).

The Italian Alzheimer’s Disease Association (AIMA, 2016), in collaboration with the Research Institute Censis analyzes the evolution of the condition of patients and their families over the last sixteen years on a sample consisting of 425 caregivers of non-institutionalized Alzheimer’s patients (available online at: www.censis.it/7?shadow_comunicato_stampa=121049). The results show that this pathology mainly affects women and also that the age of caregivers is getting more and more advanced. This study shows that the presence of behavioral disorders in patients is often the most destabilizing and disturbing element for the caregiver. The same study also found that the caregiver, on average, dedicates about 4.4 hours of assistance and ten hours of surveillance to the family member with cognitive impairment. The caregiver can also be helped by other family members (48.6%), external staff (caregiver; 32.8%), or may not receive any help (15.8%). Clearly, for the caregiver who does not receive any help, the hours of assistance increase considerably, as does the level of stress. The constant commitment of the caregiver has deep effects, which appear to be more severe when the caregiver is a woman: 80% of women, against 70% of men, declare to suffer fatigue, 63% declare that they do not sleep enough, 45% to suffer from depression, 26% to get sick often. Many caregivers also claim to take more drugs because of the commitment that caring for the family member with dementia involves; all this also has repercussions on the socio-relational dimension of caregiver’s life: in 76% of cases the caregiver interrupts its extra-work activities, the caring role has a negative impact in family relationships for 60% of the cases and in friendship for 45% of the cases.