Expressed information and resource needs of filial caregivers reporting recent experiences of crisis

In this descriptive study, 92 adult children of parents with cognitive impa irment preselected for recent experiences of crisis were interviewed regard ing their concerns and goals for caregiving and asked to identify their mos t important needs for meeting parent care requirements. The 299 information and 261 resource requests identified were organized as either primary and secondary priorities according to their frequency. This organization reveal ed primary needs for learning regarding coping, relating, and mastery of ca regiving and secondary needs relating to information about life processes ( i.e., aging and chronicity), how to access resources, and freedom from thre at or harm. It also revealed primary resource needs in the domains of perso nal assistance, assets, and getting away as well as secondary resource need s relating to knowledge and safety. The content of these needs points to ad ult children's awareness of the decline of their parents, personal anxiety or exhaustion, insufficient mastery of caregiving, and reluctance to contin ue indefinitely in the role of filial caregiver. It also indicates their aw areness of insufficient preparedness for providing parent care, need for he lp, and desire to relate more effectively with others. These findings have implications for educational research to develop interventions that might f acilitate filial maturity and the socialization of adult children into the role of caregiver in critical parent care situations.