Hmic

This study describes informal caregivers' unmet needs for community services and investigates the association between unmet needs and caregiving strain. The data used in this study were extracted from the Family Caregiving in the U.S. Survey and included 463 caregivers caring for an older adult who received community services. Among these caregivers, over one-third reported that the community services used by the care receivers did not meet their needs.

Family caregivers are crucial for supporting home death. We reviewed published qualitative research on home-based family caregiving at end of life (1998—2008), synthesizing key findings and identifying gaps where additional research is needed. Multiple databases were searched and abstracts reviewed for a focus on family caregiving and palliative care; full articles were reviewed to extract data for this review. In total, 105 articles were included.

Caring in Later Life is a review of the needs and roles of older carers (Milne et al, 2001). It brings together a wide‐ranging review of academic and policy literature with an original meta‐analysis of the 1995 General Household Survey (OPCS, 1995). This paper focuses on the findings of the GHS analysis. The picture of older carers that emerges is significantly different from that of carers overall.It is clear that older carers constitute a large and growing number of the carers and represent an increasingly large proportion of the total number of UK carers.

Rethink regularly carries out social survey research to monitor expert opinion on standards of mental health care. The recent Our Point of View survey, upon which this report is based, asked: are things getting better for the people who use mental health services, their families and friends at the beginning of the 21st Century in Britain?

The tasks provided by young carers, the support - or lack of it - on which they can draw and the effects the duties can have on their education.

It is estimated that carers carry out the equivalent of 57bn of caring a year. So, health and social services need to work together to support carers in their valuable, and often unrecognised, work.

A Canadian study offers staff in the UK insight into the feelings of hopelessness and sadness that can engulf relatives assisting with care, say Beth Perry and colleagues

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the presence of compassion fatigue in family carers who assist staff with care of older relatives in long-term settings.

Method: arrative data were collected through observation and conversations with five purposively selected family carers.

Background: The end of life may be a time of high service utilisation for older adults. Transitions between care settings occur frequently, but may produce little improvement in symptom control or quality of life for patients. Ensuring that patients experience co-ordinated care, and moves occur because of individual needs rather than system imperatives, is crucial to patients’ well-being and to containing health-care costs.