British nursing index bni - exported on 8/7/2016

Interest in the concerns of cancer patients’ carers has been growing steadily over the last decade reflected in key cancer service policy documents [DOH, 1995. A Policy Framework for Commissioning Cancer Services (Calman-Hine Report). London, HMSO; DOH, 2002. The NHS Cancer Plan]. Despite this acknowledgement, it can be argued that less is known about carers’ experience in the cancer treatment context. Carers can be defined as someone who shares the experience of cancer with the patient.

Hot Topic series. Comments on the incidence and impact of Alzheimer Disease, focusing on the effect on informal carers and the need for services to be provided to support them and allow patients to lead independent lives. [(BNI unique abstract)] 0 references

Access to regular, high-quality respite care has a beneficial impact on a carer’s ability to fulfil their caring role, but provision varies widely. The current study aims to report family and informal carers’ perceptions of respite care services offered to them by their local authority. A mixed method, triangulated design, yielded both quantitative and qualitative data. Members of a parent/carer federation were sent a questionnaire which included a section on ‘respite care’; 151 of 647 responded. Two focus groups were held with 15 carers who had previously completed the questionnaire.

Despite evidence of high psychological distress and unmet needs, evaluated interventions for informal caregivers in palliative care are few. This study involved an observational outcome evaluation of attendees, and a comparison group, in specialist home palliative care. The measures included carer psychological status and patient physical status at baseline, 8 weeks, and 20 weeks. Qualitative data were collected regarding content, satisfaction with, and impact of intervention. Process data described the uptake, resources, and group activity.

Aims and objectives.  This literature review aims to delineate the determinants of perceived burden by informal caregivers and provide insight into the interrelatedness between these determinants.

Background.  Despite the attention given to the various determinants of perceived burden, their interrelatedness has not been unravelled. Insight into this interrelatedness is mandatory for the development of successful, complex, multivariate interventions to reduce perceived burden of informal caregivers.

Design.  Systematic review.

We sought to examine the mental and physical health and health-related quality of life of current and past carers compared to non-carers, using two instruments—the Short Form-12 (SF-12) and the EuroQol 5-dimension (EQ-5D). A total of 249 participants (34 current carers, 14 previous carers, 197 non-carers, 4 non-respondents) completed a baseline self-report survey at randomization into the larger study.

The present study describes and compares quality of life (QoL) and factors which predict QoL among people aged 75 years and over who receive help with activities of daily living (ADLs) from formal and/or informal helpers. The subjects were living at home or in special accommodation in Sweden. A postal questionnaire was sent to a randomly selected and age-stratified sample of 8500 people. The response rate was 52.8% (n = 4337), and 1247 people [mean age (± SD) = 86.4 ± 5.9 years] received help and indicated who helped them with ADLs.