Complex needs

Purpose: Many children with complex needs exhibit eating, drinking, and/or swallowing disorders (dysphagia). These children often have associated learning needs, and require assistance from carers for daily tasks such as eating and drinking. The aim of this study was to identify which strategies to manage dysphagia were challenging for family carers, and reasons for any non-adherence. Method: In this service evaluation researchers observed carers during mealtimes, and investigated carer opinions of strategies used to minimise the risks of dysphagia.

Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which Australian child and family health nurses work with families with complex needs and how their practice responds to the needs of these families. Background. Many families with young children face challenges to their parenting capacity, potentially placing their children at risk of poorer developmental outcomes. Nurses increasingly work with families with mental health problems, trauma histories and/or substance dependence.

Accessible summary Direct payments can help people with learning disabilities or autism to have good support. Often, family carers manage the direct payments for people who would find this very difficult. We asked family carers who managed direct payments to tell us why they decided to do this and what their experiences were. Family carers told us they found managing direct payments difficult and stressful at first, but this got easier over time. They also said that direct payments helped their family members to have more person-centred support.

Aims and objectives To explore the experiences of the families of young adults with intellectual disabilities at the point of transition from child to adult health services. Background The population of people with intellectual disabilities is changing rapidly, with young people with increasingly complex needs surviving into adulthood and requiring transition from child to adult health services. Design An interpretative qualitative design.

Background: People with intellectual disabilities are living longer, with increasingly complex needs and their family caregivers may have a broad scope of unmet needs. Aims: To identify the most common needs of family caregivers, to identify gaps in the literature, and distinguish the information needs of family caregivers of people with intellectual disabilities who require palliative care. Methods: This two phase literature review used five electronic databases (CINAHL, PsycINFO, Medline, Cochrane and Pubmed).

The Oxford Friends and Family Empowerment (OFAFE) service is a carer support service that originated in a collaboration between the Oxfordshire Complex Needs Service and the national mental health charity Rethink. OFAFE provides support and education for adults supporting an individual with a personality disorder. This paper describes the background and operation of the OFAFE service, along with the early stages of the development of a similar service for young carers, the Young Friends and Family Empowerment (YFAFE) service.