Hmic

AIM: To develop an assessment tool for the collection of information on carers' needs and to pilot test same. BACKGROUND: No formal assessment of the needs of carers is undertaken by Public Health Nurses (PHNs) in the West of Ireland. METHOD: An assessment tool which took the form of a questionnaire was designed based on an earlier needs analysis, a literature review and qualitative data obtained with carers at two focus groups. Sixty carers were involved in the pilot study of the tool.

It is estimated that around 6 million adults in Britain are providing unpaid care to a sick, disabled or elderly person. The challenges of combining paid work and informal care affect the type of work that can be done, the hours of work, and the likelihood of gaining or remaining in employment. The main aims of this research were to examine what employment supports are needed for carers currently in work or those who are currently caring or have recently ended a spell of caring and want to return to paid employment.

This is the report of a collaborative study between the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Bibini Centre for Young People to investigate the experiences, needs and access to services of black ‘young carers’ and their families. It is important to highlight that this study was situated within the social and political context of inequality, at a time when interest in the root causes of inequality seems to have been lost; instead, the focus is on ‘managing diversity’ (as if the problem lies in ‘difference’) and grappling with the consequences, not the causes, of social exclusion.

Few of the studies focusing on family caregiving have dealt with families caring for a young adult member with a serious and persistent mental illness. This qualitative study expands our understanding of the caregiving processes in these families. The narrative responses of 76 family caregivers from National Alliance for the Mentally Ill chapters across the United States were analysed using content analysis. Five caregiving processes were identified including monitoring, managing the illness, maintaining the home, supporting/encouraging, and socialising.

As the location of long-term care of elderly people moves to homes and communities, and responsibility for care shifts to families, understanding the experience of people in this situation is necessary to ensure that support is appropriate, accessible and effective. The present paper explores informal caregivers’ and recipients’ relationships with formal support, drawing on thematic and narrative analysis of 30 in-depth interviews with self-identified family caregivers conducted over a year in a mid-size city in Ontario, Canada.

Following the publication of the Good Practice Guide and report “We CareToo”, by the National Black Carers and Carer Workers Network and Afiya Trust, an audit of its impact was planned. This coincided with the announcement a new National Carers Strategy and the exercise was broadened into this review of the needs and experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Britain to complement the Government’s formal consultation.

It is possible that effective information-sharing strategies to improve the quality of care can be developed. Service users, carers and professionals should all be involved in generating such strategies. The ideal information-sharing strategy can be tailored to individuals' needs and requires professionals to make carefully weighted judgements. Professionals need training to help them to understand the roles of carers and to work with carers effectively. Training should be accredited in order to encourage attendance.

The needs of young carers and their families are a multi-agency responsibility that crosses both adults’ and children and families’ services. This practice guide is therefore aimed at all agencies that have contact with young carers and the people for whom they care. It brings together much of the thinking and experience behind the good practice developed so far and will provide a useful starting point for those new to this area of work and serve as a development resource for the more experienced.

There is increasing emphasis on enhancing consumer and carer participation in the planning and provision of mental health services. However, health professionals, consumers, and carers have different perceptions about what constitutes optimal care; identifying, negotiating, and meeting their respective needs can be challenging. The aim of the paper is to highlight the challenges of facilitating carer participation in daily practice and emphasise the broader issues that would benefit from more extensive discussion among health professionals.

This paper reports on the experience of informal carers whose family members have received occupational therapy. The qualitative study focused on one city. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six carers and the interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The carers were generally satisfied with the occupational therapy that the care recipient received. The carers felt involved in the occupational therapy, although some had a lengthy wait for this.