**1. Introduction**

In 2021, the global patient safety action plan 2021–2030 [1] was approved at the 74th World Health Assembly [1], continuing the process started in 2002, which anticipates the presentation of a report to monitor the implementation progress of this action plan at the 76th World Health Assembly in 2023 [2]. Patient safety is a framework of organized activities that creates cultures, processes, procedures, behaviors, technologies, and environments in health care that consistently and sustainably lower risks, reduce the occurrence of avoidable harm, make errors less likely, and reduce its impact when it does occur [1].

The topic of patient safety generates debates worldwide, aiming at defining the best practices in healthcare environments [3].

Many families provide care for dependent elderly people in the home environment, where there are many dangers. Providing care at home poses risks to the safety of families, who do not know how to organize themselves to provide safe care. Health professionals should assess the caregiver's knowledge and skills, providing guidance on care to ensure that the patient receives safe, quality care and has access to community resources [4].

Clinical practices based on scientific evidence should be implemented to ensure quality on three fronts: improving the health of the individual patient, improving the quality of health care, and strengthening the overall health system [5].

This study aims to disclose the effect of a nursing intervention based on a psychoeducational program for family caregivers of the elderly aiming at reducing burden and improving coping. Caregivers must learn to be competent to manage their own safety and that of elderly family members.

Due to the increase in life expectancy, the last years of life are usually lived with a loss of physical or mental independence, so older people need help and care to perform the activities of daily living (ADL), with the family being the main caregiver [6]. It is inevitable to burden the family caregiver (FC) who transitions from an apparently healthy person to a sick one [7].

Family caregivers constitute a risk group, as they are more vulnerable to the development of physical and psychological morbidities [8], sleep disturbances, abuse, or abandonment of the person cared for. Caring for the elderly requires caregivers to use more health care resources and has inevitable implications for health systems and employing organizations [9].

Collaborating with the family, caregiver in the health system entails the creation of support networks and monitoring by health teams [10] with structured and contextualized interventions so that they can develop more appropriate coping strategies [11].

The dynamic process of caring over time allows the caregiver to learn how to care and acquire skills to perform tasks, care for, and mobilize resources, according to the evolution of the elderly's comorbidities [12].

The model used in this study was the Neuman systems model [13], which contributed to understanding how variables influence a changing client system (consisting of the family caregiver and the dependent elderly). Nursing can help individuals and families maintain their well-being by providing interventions that reduce stressors and adverse conditions that affect the optimal functioning of the client system. Neuman's systems model evaluates the interaction of five variables (physiological, psychological, sociocultural, spiritual, and developmental) in the constantly changing environment, caused by stress factors associated with care. The five client system variables can be located at different levels of the system from the center or core to the lines of resistance (LR) or lines of defense: Normal line of defense (NLD) and flexible line of defense (FLD) [13].

Stressors can arise in the internal or external environment of the family, which are stimuli or forces that create tension and can affect the client system to a greater or lesser degree, causing instability (**Figure 1**) [13].

The nursing actions aim to improve, retain, achieve, or maintain the client's health or well-being, using the three levels of prevention as interventions to keep the system stable. Community nursing cares for family caregivers of the elderly helps them to play their role, improve coping, learn new skills, and face the challenges of daily care [14].

There is evidence of the positive effects of a psychoeducational approach supported by programs for family caregivers in the home environment [15]. In psychoeducation, caregivers learn adaptive skills to deal with care demands and the stress, using a structured format that is usually taught in small groups, including time *Safety in the Home Care Environment of Families Caring for the Elderly DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107862*

**Figure 1.** *Neuman's systems Modelan's.*

for teaching and practice. The addressed topics typically, include information about dementia, community resources and services, learning to take time to care for oneself, improving communication with family, and skills to manage problem behaviors, such as dealing with negative feelings by managing anger and anxiety, modifying one's way of thinking, and learning to program enjoyable events [16].

This research is a quasi-experimental study, which was carried out based on a pilot study [17] and was based on the following research question: Does the nursing intervention focused on educational and support actions for the family caregiver have an effect on the client system variables (family caregiver and dependent elderly)?
