Information services

PURPOSE: Family and friends often provide informal care for patients with cancer, coordinating care and supporting patients at home. Stress, depression, and burnout are increasingly recognized among these informal caregivers. Although past research has described a range of needs, including the need for information, details about unmet informational needs for caregivers have not been fully described. We sought to assess unmet information management needs for informal caregivers in the digital era.

The number of people from minority ethnic groups who are living with dementia is rising steeply, yet awareness levels and diagnosis rates are worryingly low. An Alzheimer's Society project , The Information Programme for South Asian Families (IPSAF), which provides culturally tailored information information sessions aims to help solve this problem. The service comprises a series of face-to-face sessions which helps carers to build their understanding, knowledge and skills of dementia. An educational DVD is also provided for carers to take home and share with family members.

Describes the Abhay Partnership Project to deliver advocacy services for South Asian elders and their informal elder carers in west London. It also aims to change and improve how the 6 consortium partners, 3 host agencies and 9 community centres design and deliver services to such people.

To date, little is known about carers’ experience of using online services and informa­tion. Data are reported from the Carers Online national postal survey of 3,014 adult carers and from an assisted access study involving 60 other adults who had been given training and cost-free Internet access at home. Half of the survey respondents reported having used the Internet on at least one occasion for a range of purposes related to both caring and other aspects of their lives.

Describes a three-year project funded by a grant from the Bridge House Estate Trust Fund to fund an information and advice project for black and ethnic minority older people and their informal elder carers, aiming to improve access to Age Concern's information and advice services across London and working in all 33 boroughs - 11 per year.

Background: Information is a key part of service provision to people with dementia and their carers, but there is no systematic review of the evidence. This study aimed to determine whether information services confer significant benefit for quality of life, neuropsychiatric symptoms and carer burden.

Method: A systematic review of intervention studies in people with dementia was carried out, focussing predominantly on the provision of information and/or advice.

The author describes a mobile library service in North Bedfordshire, which takes equipment to older people with dementia and also provides support for them and their carers. The equipment provided includes the areas of hobbies and leisure, reminiscence; arts and craft and sensory resources activities.