Families & Family Life

Microsoft has upped the ante on its already-enviable employee benefits package by adding paid leave for employees who need to take care of an ailing family member. According to recent research from the Northeast Business Group on Health and AARP, caregiving is among the top 10 employee health and wellness benefits priorities for employers, and most employers agree that in the next five years, caregiving is going to become an increasingly important issue among employees.

[...]parties, including health-care providers, government agencies, care facilities, and financial institutions, may expect or require that your legal authority to make decisions or provide consent be based on more than being a concerned and loving caregiver. The Social Security Administration can give limited decision authority over Social Security benefits through the title of representative payee. [...]there are frequently many misunderstandings about the basics of this arrangement: * You can't get a power of attorney over someone; it has to be given to you.

Employers are increasingly finding ways to support workers who are juggling jobs, children, and looking after elderly parents. A new era of flexible working is making life easier for carers. For employers that want to do more, concierge-style support programmes are an avenue to explore.

For Mom's valve replacement surgery, family members kept track of medications and tests while she was in the hospital. Drug therapies are involved in nearly three in four doctors' visits, more than 80% of hospital emergency department visits, and almost 73% of hospital outpatient visits. Policies that facilitate information sharing, engage pharmacists as care-team members, and align resources accordingly are needed to bridge the gaps in care transitions and address the human and economic costs associated with poor medication management.

In 2013, nearly 43.5 million Americans provided 37 billion hours of uncompensated care to their loved ones. Despite their significant contributions, family caregivers often feel inadequately prepared for their caregiving roles resulting in increased caregiver burden, which impacts their health and well-being. To enhance family caregivers’ sense of preparedness, a tailored multicomponent interdisciplinary caregiver intervention was implemented in an inpatient rehabilitation unit of an urban community hospital in the Midwest.

An abstract of a study by Tucker et al defining the barriers and opportunities associated with measuring family and caregiver satisfaction with palliative care services in inpatient and ambulatory settings is presented. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys which are mandated by CMS and the subsequent Value Based Purchasing payment system has brought increased attention to the potential effects of quality PC services through an emphasis on communication skills, coordination of care, pain management and goals of care discussions.

Objectives

Family caregivers provide essential support, information, and surrogate decision making for critically ill patients and are recognized as important care partners with the clinical team in the intensive care unit (ICU). Unfortunately, many family members who assume a caregiving role during critical illness also experience the detrimental effects of this stressful life event. 

The data on family caregiving is sobering and it behooves all to become familiar with several recent monographs and reports from the field. Happ looks at some reports that provide important data and evidence useful as caregivers develop, test, and implement best, conscientious practices in the discharge of older adults from acute care settings.

Glioma patients are not only confronted with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, but also with disease-specific symptoms that greatly affect everyday life. Common symptoms among patients include motor dysfunction, sensory loss, seizures, cognitive deficits, changes in behaviour and personality, mood issues, and fatigue. This review focuses on family caregivers, for whom dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of a brain tumour in their loved one while managing disease-specific symptoms can be challenging.

All doctors, irrespective of their specialty or the setting in which they work, will care for patients who die. Around half of all deaths occur in hospitals. Evidence suggests that the quality of communication around this process is poorer in hospitals than in other settings, according to responses from relatives who have experienced bereavement. Over half of NHS complaints concern care of the dying.This article discusses how to best support relatives and carers at the end of a patient's life.