Family assessment

In Palliative Care, the unit of care is the patient and their family. Although members of the health care team often address the family caregiver's opinions and concerns, the focus of care remains on the needs of the patient. The readiness and willingness of the family caregiver is often overlooked as they are expected to assume a complex caregiving role.

Caring for an older adult with dementia at home, is a complex process that creates chronic stress, affecting to a greater or lesser degree the physical and mental health of caregivers, so the evaluation of objective and subjective burden, as well as stressors and ways to tackle them, should not be absent in the Occupational Therapy evaluation, not to mention the family member-caregiver dyad. The preliminary results of the stage of reality immersion, have allowed constituting a sample which initiates the collection of data through in depth interviews and life histories.

In Germany the community care system is still not developed to meet the needs of families with dementia. The Scottish need-assessment CarenapD (Care Needs Assessment Pack for Dementia) records the need status of persons with dementia and initiates a care plan. Also the needs of informal carers are measured. After translating the assessment into German language, its practicality and adaptability was tested in this study from the perspective of the professional user. Also was tested, how the CarenapD results interpret the community care.

Young carers are children and young people who look after family members with illness, disabilities, mental illness or substance misuse. Many of these young carers help with personal nursing care and administration of medication as well as household tasks and care of younger siblings. Inappropriate levels of caring can impact on a child's own emotional and physical health, educational achievement and life chances.

For this special issue, the latest research findings on the topic of families living with parental psychiatric disabilities were solicited and compiled, to inform policymakers and practitioners with the best research available, while informing researchers about new developments in the field.

Ask the experts is a forum in which consultant nurses working with older people debate an issue in older people's care and offer advice. This month, Soline Jerram, consultant nurse: older people and intermediate care, from Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead PCT, poses questions brought to her by intermediate care staff and informal carers.