Background:Family caregivers of people living with dementia benefit from supportive service use to address care needs associated with caregiving. Yet, research consistently demonstrates low rates of service use. Existing research has focused on barriers and facilitators to service use, with few studies examining the influence of caregivers’ environmental context which often patterns social advantage and health services accessibility. Objective:To describe the perspectives caregivers residing in socially disadvantaged areas have in regards to utilizing supportive services. Methods:Ten informal caregivers residing in socially disadvantaged areas participated in in-depth interviews that were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results:Across all interviews, caregivers spontaneously described common precedents of service use (crisis or accumulation of unmet needs) and a distinct sequence of stages (seeking, initiating, and utilizing) surrounding service engagement. Major themes characterizing caregivers’ experiences throughout service engagement highlight the varied influence of personal, familial, health, and social system-related factors. Findings demonstrate that caregivers may have different service needs as dementia progresses and that gerontological social work practice can facilitate service use. Conclusion:While preliminary, these findings provide important insights into new domains that can be further examined in future research and intervention efforts to improve supportive service use in socially disadvantaged and underserved communities.

中文翻译：

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痴呆症护理人员在资源匮乏地区居住时参与支持服务的经验

背景：痴呆症患者的家庭照护者受益于支持性服务，以解决与照护相关的照护需求。然而，研究始终表明服务使用率低。现有的研究主要集中在服务使用的障碍和促进因素上，很少有研究检查照顾者的环境背景的影响，而这些影响通常会影响社会优势和卫生服务的可及性。目的：描述居住在社会弱势地区的看护者在利用支持服务方面的观点。方法：10名居住在社会弱势地区的非正式照顾者参与深度访谈，采用主题分析法进行分析。结果：在所有采访中，护理人员自发地描述了服务使用的常见先例（危机或未满足需求的积累）以及围绕服务参与的不同阶段（寻求、启动和利用）。描述护理人员在整个服务参与过程中的经历的主要主题突出了个人、家庭、健康和社会系统相关因素的不同影响。研究结果表明，随着痴呆症的进展，护理人员可能有不同的服务需求，老年学社会工作实践可以促进服务的使用。结论：虽然是初步的，但这些发现为新领域提供了重要的见解，可以在未来的研究和干预工作中进一步检查，以改善社会弱势和服务不足社区的支持性服务使用。