Wives of Institutionalized Elderly Men

Although much recent research has focused on family caregivers to the community-dwelling impaired elderly, little research has examined the experiences of family caregivers once the older relative enters a long-term care institution. This article focuses on the experiences of wives whose husbands have entered a long-term care institution. This process is conceptualized as a life course transition to quasi-widowhood, a term intended to capture the. situation of living alone without one's former mate yet still married and still involved in many ways in the spousal role. The transition is viewed in terms of a four-stage process, based on a model developed from a pilot study. This article focuses on Stage 1, using data from 69 wives who are participating in a longitudinal study in Toronto, Canada. Stage 1 is seen to be characterized by having such negative feelings as guilt, anger, sadness, resentment, and loneliness, but at the same time by ambivalence arising from feelings of relief over the cessation of arduous home-based caregiving and relief that the husband is getting excellent care. In the early weeks following the husband's admission, wives display poor physical health, low morale, and high levels of depression. Contrary to expectations, uncertainty was not characteristic of Stage 1.