**2. Methods**

#### **2.1 Sampling and recruitment**

The participants are family caregivers of elderly individuals who receive home care from a community health unit. This is an intentional sample and depended on the participants' availability and willingness. The study was carried out from May 2015 to May 2017.

The inclusion criteria comprised adult family members responsible for care and with a score ≤16 on the screening scale for caregivers at risk of burden [18].

To facilitate access to the sample, the researcher joined the nursing team that provides care in the home context and knows the families well. Two groups were organized: the control group (CG), which received the usual care and did not adhere to the program and the intervention group (IG) in which the participants adhered to the intervention based on the psychoeducational stress management program [18]. According to **Figure 1**, after the screening, the sample of 77 participants was organized into two groups, 37 participants from the IG and 40 from the CG, preventing ethical issues since the decision was made by the participants.

The participants underwent a period of continuous assessment for eight months. The 1st evaluation was performed before the intervention (T1 – Baseline), the 2nd evaluation was performed two months after T1 (the intervention in the IG took place during this period) (T2 – post-intervention), and the 3rd evaluation was performed six months after T2 (T3 – follow-up) (**Figure 2**).

**Figure 2.** *Participant recruitment and selection flowchart.*

*Safety in the Home Care Environment of Families Caring for the Elderly DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107862*

The variables of the two client systems were evaluated in three moments: T1, T2, and T3, according to the Neuman System Model, and the comparison between the two groups allowed us to assess the differences in the five variables and at the different levels of the system: core, lines of resistance (LR), and lines of defense (LD). The homogeneity of the results of the characterization variables of the two systems was verified.
