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 of 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.
Keywords: Caregiving; dementia; health disparities; social support.