Caregiver Empowerment in the Community: Health Gains and Multicultural Challenges in Rehabilitation Nursing

The Caregiver Status was legally recognized in Portugal in 2019. Portuguese aging index and elderly dependency index increased in the last three decades, which has developed burden on caregivers. The empowerment of caregivers is an essential strategy to promote health gains, which is an indicator of rehabilitation nursing care. However, the multicultural nature of Portuguese society represents a significant challenge in this process. This theoretical-reflective article aims to analyze the empowerment process of the Caregiver in a community context, their health gains and the multicultural challenges for Rehabilitation Nursing. Caregiver empowerment is carried out by a reference Nurse, preferentially at home. The intervention of the Rehabilitation Nurse Specialist is essential to provide the Caregiver with the knowledge and skills needed to ensure performance of the activities of daily living, tools for the management of chronic disease, the prevention of complications and coping strategies. The empowerment process results in health gains for the Caregiver (for example, reduction of emotional overload and improvement in quality of life) and for the Person Cared For (for example, improvement in functional capacity and less exacerbation of chronic disease). Empowerment is efficient when it is structured, continuous and culturally sensitive, combined with appropriate monitoring by a Rehabilitation Nurse Specialist, with specific competencies on cultural diversity and training methods. It’s suggested that health policies and multicultural community programs be created that facilitate the empowerment of Informal Caregivers and contribute to the sustainability of health systems.