families

Chronic Illness represents a growing concern in the western world and individuals living with chronic illness are primarily managed at home by family caregivers. A scoping review of the home-care literature (2004-2009; updated with review articles from 2010 to January 2013) on the topic of the caregiver revealed that this group experiences the following safety-related concerns: caregivers are conscripted to the role, experience economic hardship, risk being abused as well as abusing, and may well become patients themselves.

One cannot imagine that an individual with dementia could be abused by their carers who, more often than not, are close family members. Yet sufferers stand a high chance of falling victim to abuse because of their vulnerability. In this next article, Colm Owens and Claudia Cooper explain how they went about finding out from family carers of dementia sufferers how far abuse can go in order to understand what drives an individual to act in such a way.

Background: Depression in informal caregivers of persons with dementia is a major, costly and growing problem. However, it is not yet clear which caregivers are at increased risk of developing depression. With this knowledge preventive strategies could focus on these groups to maximize health gain and minimize effort.

The guidance looks at best practice for local commissioning partnerships to provide services to support carers of individuals with a drug problem. The document also covers how best to include carers (where appropriate) in the drug treatment of the individuals they are concerned for – citing the evidence base that demonstrates involving carers can improve outcomes for users. The guidance as a whole is predicated on the assumption that commissioners and services providers involve and consult carers in every stage of service design and delivery.

The continuing expansion of women's employment has increasingly focused attention on the question of how the caring work traditionally carried out by unpaid women will be accomplished. In particular, how can caring responsibilities be combined with a long-term career? In this paper, we assess the significance of the national context through a comparison of the biographies of career bank managers, male and female, in Britain and Norway.

Background: People with dementia often die badly, receiving end-of-life care of poorer quality than that given to those who are cognitively intact.

Aims: To define good end-of-life care for people with dementia and identify how it can be delivered across care settings in the UK.

Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 bereaved family carers and 23 care professionals recruited from the community, care homes, general hospitals and continuing care units. Data were analysed using the constant comparison method.

In the United States and globally, increasing numbers of older parents are living with their adult children. Making the decision to live together requires careful thought and planning; particularly when the decision means the children will be responsible for their elder parents’ care, the physicians of all parties should be consulted. More than one-third of caregivers state that they seek advice from their physician or other clinician when information is needed about this transition.

Demographic trends have created a situation in which relationships between family members endure over long periods of time, sometimes in ways that are as yet undefined by psychological theories. Clinical social workers are called upon to help these families. This paper examines how these relationships are affected in middle-class families when elders become frail and need care, and families become “stuck.” Current literature about adult and later life development as well as clinical examples will be cited to illuminate this discussion.

This article explores the experiences of family carers of older people in using support services in six European countries: Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the UK. Following a common protocol, data were collected from national samples of approximately 1,000 family carers per country and clustered into comparable subgroups to facilitate cross-national analysis. Carers' use of available support services is limited across Europe but is considerably higher in Germany, Sweden, and the UK than in Poland, Greece, and Italy.

This article describes a nurse led service operating on three adult acute psychiatric wards in a hospital in South London. On each ward a member of the regular nursing staff spends one day meeting with families and carers. A case is made for the need for such a service, and its aims are described. An example of a series of meetings with the relatives of one patient is given, illustrating the benefits of this type of service.