Caregiver Burden

Caregiver burden refers to the physical, emotional, social, and financial strain experienced by individuals who provide ongoing care to a family member or partner with a disability, chronic illness, or age-related condition such as dementia. Caregivers often experience disruption to their own identity, autonomy, social life, and wellbeing as they take on new responsibilities. Research in assistive technology has highlighted that technology designed solely to address the care recipient's needs can increase caregiver burden by adding monitoring and management responsibilities, while technology that supports both partners' autonomy and relationship quality can reduce it. Effective technology design for caregiving contexts should address the needs of the entire family system, not just the individual with the impairment.