Abstracts by keywords: Family Members
Relatives such as children, spouses, parents, siblings or friends often play central roles in outpatient and inpatient care. Although most of the discourse is about relatives providing care, relatives also act, for example, as referrers, mediators, information seekers, translators or decision-makers (Bischofberger, 2011). They are thus (regardless of the patient's care needs) essential support in the treatment and management of numerous diseases (Reifegerste, 2019). At the same time, however, they can also disrupt care processes or at least be perceived accordingly by healthcare professionals because, for example, they impede the patient's recovery by providing too much support, their absence makes discharge more difficult, or they confront the doctors with too high expectations (Wilz & Meichsner, 2012 ). However, the majority of them show a high level of motivation to support the patient in coping with illnesses, so that the question arises as to how their motivation can be integrated well into care processes. Although the relatives are omnipresent in health care - be it with positive as well as negative consequences - they are often not considered as a stakeholder of the care. They are “hidden in plain sight” (Wolff & Roter, 2008). In nursing facilities, in paediatrics, oncology or palliative care, they are usually considered to be key participants. In many other areas of care, on the other hand, they are sometimes regarded as an annoying appendage of the patient, ignored or even actively avoided, even if there are hardly any diseases or patients in which they play no role at all (Reifebarste, in press).