Hmic

Purpose. To describe the level of caregiver strain and factors associated with caregiver self-efficacy and quality of life (QoL) in a community cohort with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The objective of the research reported here was to provide an opportunity to raise issues relevant to the ongoing debate on informal care of older people by exploring the attitudes of both men and woman towards the care of dependant older people. The sample (n = 174) was drawn from age cohorts 20-39 years (n = 90) and 40-59 years (n = 84). The men and women who participated in the study were members of the general public.

This paper examines care management, or ‘managerial care’, a type of informal care for older adults that has been relatively neglected by researchers. While previous research has acknowledged that care-giving may involve tasks other than direct ‘hands-on’ care, the conceptualisation of managerial care has often been vague and inconsistent. This study is the first explicitly to investigate managerial care amongst a large sample of carers.

Meeting family carers who recount their experiences of being on the receiving end of health and social care provides a 'real life' context in which undergraduate students from different professions can explore together and learn about interprofessional care and teamwork. This paper draws on data from a three-month in-depth evaluation of palliative care workshops in which medical, nursing, social work and rehabilitation therapy students interview family carers who are caring for someone with a terminal illness or who have recently been bereaved.

This paper aims to discuss the reasons why caregiving in the community had ended for a sample of dependent older people, two-thirds of whom had dementia. Comparisons are made between the situation of a spouse caring for a partner and a daughter or son caring for a parent in a separate household. Spouses in the study had often sustained a greater burden before caregiving collapsed than had daughters or sons. They were less likely, however, to have had support from the home care service.

Many long-term care systems in economically developed countries are reliant on informal care. However, in the context of population ageing, there are concerns about the future supply of informal care. This article reports on projections of informal care receipt by older people with disabilities from spouses and (adult) children to 2032 in England. The projections show that the proportions of older people with disabilities who have a child will fall by 2032 and that the extent of informal care in future may be lower than previously estimated.

The article addresses the issue of working carers in social services - employees who have caring responsibilities for adults outside work. Where employers fail to support carers, costs can be high. Ways of developing carer-friendly policies are considered. 

Background Training care givers reduces their burden and improves psychosocial outcomes in care givers and patients at one year.

Objective To determine the effectiveness of community based occupational therapy on daily functioning of patients with dementia and the sense of competence of their care givers.

Design Single blind randomised controlled trial. Assessors were blinded for treatment allocation.

Setting Memory clinic and day clinic of a geriatrics department and participants' homes.

Participants 135 patients aged ≥65 with mild to moderate dementia living in the community and their primary care givers.

This paper presents the finding of an exploratory study examining the risk management strategies of informal carers of mental health service users. Thirteen carers from two cities were interviewed in depth using a semi-structured interview schedule. Participants had been informal carers between four and 20 years and supported users with formal diagnoses of schizophrenia, manic depression and depression. A grounded theory approach was followed to collect and examine data and to test the resulting models of risk management.