Dementia

Objectives: In a multi-site population-based study in several middle-income countries, we aimed to investigate relative contributions of care arrangements and characteristics of carers and care recipients to strain among carers of people with dementia. Based on previous research, hypotheses focused on carer sex, care inputs, behavioural and psychological symptoms (BPSD) and socioeconomic status, together with potential buffering effects of informal support and employing paid carers.

Ian James, Ian Powell and Katharina Reichelt describe how they encourage carers to monitor their own thoughts as a way of understanding the strong emotions they experience. This knowledge can then help carers to find better strategies for coping with difficult caring situations

In this article, the authors discuss their research to explore how technology might assist family members caring for a relative with dementia at home, outlining their research process, outcomes, and recommendations.

The film provides an introduction to home care reablement. Reablement is a relatively new service aimed at supporting people to regain independence that may have been reduced or lost through illness or disability. The film focuses on the reablement service in the London Borough of Sutton, known as START (Short Term Assessment and Reablement Team), where we follow the experiences of two people using the service and hear from the manager and senior carer. We also hear from health economist Prof Julien Forder about new research evidence on the cost effectiveness of reablement.

Outlines a research project undertaken in the Dartford and Gravesham area of north west Kent to explore the service-related needs of Asian older people with dementia and their carers. The study was conducted from February 2002 to January 2004, based at a local dementia care charity, and funded by the Mental Health Foundation. Qualitative approaches were used to collect data about existing services and the views and perceptions of key stakeholders including: 7 GPs, 32 health professionals and service managers, 7 carers and 230 members of the local Asian community.

Considerable suffering is experienced by carers of patients with dementia. Most existing studies do not consider the coexistence of subjective and objective aspects that cause, interacting to each other, this suffering. The authors: (1) define the high-risk group of caregivers on the bases of the scores obtained on the four scales evaluating burden, distress, depression and anxiety (BDDA) taken into account simultaneously and (2) evaluate risk factors related to the high level of BDDA. 419 elderly outpatients with dementia and their caregivers were enrolled.

Part 3 of a video on carers of people with dementia.The video highlights the different roles a carer plays (or different hats). They need to be compassionate when looking after the physical and mental health needs of the person they are caring for. They also need to be a warrier in order to battle to find out what services and benefits are available.

The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of interventions that assist caregivers to provide support for people living with dementia in the community. Adult caregivers who provide support for people with dementia living in the community (non‐institutional care). Interventions designed to support caregivers in their role such as skills training, education to assist in caring for a person living with dementia and support groups/programs.

Reminiscence therapy has the potential to improve quality of life for people with dementia. In recent years reminiscence groups have extended to include family members, but carers’ experience of attending joint sessions is undocumented. This qualitative study explored the experience of 18 family carers attending ‘Remembering Yesterday Caring Today’ groups. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis.

This article reports on findings from a qualitative study, undertaken in England, which explored the experiences of 21 gay men and lesbian women who care, or cared, for a person with dementia. The aim of the study was to explore this experience through the lens of a person's gay or lesbian sexuality. The paper reports two related themes that emerged from the wider study – respondents' hopes, fears and plans for the future and, specifically, the way in which their caring experiences had coloured their views and expectations of how their own health and social care needs may be met.