Family co-responsibility for the care of the elderly in the social project of the autonomous parish government of San Martin de Puzhio, Canton Chordeleg, during the year 2023

Abstract

The older adult population has increased in recent years, being a social group vulnerable to the violation of rights in terms of care and attention by their families.The objective of the study was to know the level of family co-responsibility in the care and attention of this age group, taking as a reference the family of the older adults who are part of the project "My best years" of the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion in San Martin de Puzhio parish, Chordeleg canton. A quantitative method study was conducted, which was applied with its descriptive and exploratory phases, allowing to go directly to the homes of the group in question on two occasions, one with the family and the other with the elderly to observe and study the realities of family systems and thus proceed with the collection of information; of a total of 40 elderly people, 38 have direct or close family and 2 have no family, which is why they were not taken into account in the research process. As the main study tool, questionnaires elaborated in the Google Forms platform were implemented, one with 15 multiple choice questions applied to 38 family members and another with 8 questions for the 38 older adults, thus covering the two variables of the research and contrasting the results by means of Pearson's non-parametric Chi-square test, establishing the correlation between family co-responsibility and the care of the older adults with respect to: health care and attention, feeding, personal hygiene, affectivity and the role of the caregiver and the family. The results were considered as the basis for the development of strategies to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the elderly and in turn to encourage the family to play the role of responsible care, to build affective bonds of quality and warmth that allow strengthening a dignified life for this population during the last years of life.