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Since the early 1990s, UK social care policy has committed to supporting carers. Legislation (England and Wales) over this time period has recognised the importance of separate carer assessments that take into account an individual's ability and willingness to care. This paper considers carer assessment from the perspective of social care practitioners. It reports on qualitative data from a carer research programme that spans over 20 years (1993 to present) and includes 383 in-depth interviews with social care practitioners across England and Wales.

Integrated care pathways (ICPs) are prearranged processes of care that are being increasingly used to deliver mental health services. The literature to date reveals relatively little about service user and carer experience in relation to their use. This study was completed as part of case study research and focused on the experiences of service users and carers gathered using focus groups, as a unit of analysis.

Successive government policies have highlighted the need to inform and involve carers fully in the hospital discharge process. However, some research suggests that many carers feel insufficiently involved and unsupported in this process.

Aim.  This paper is a report of a study conducted to uncover the strategies that women caregivers of relatives with advanced dementia use to rest from care-giving.

Background.  Respite consists of activities and situations that briefly take caregivers away from their care-giving responsibilities. Qualitative studies are focusing on respite as an outcome and are deepening our knowledge about the experience of caregivers’ rest. The strategies that caregivers use to relieve the burden, however, are not fully known.

Background The General Household Survey 2000 shows that approximately 6.8 million adults in Britain provide care to sick or disabled relatives or friends, or the elderly. Carers report high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, as well as general health problems and physical injuries such as strained backs associated with lifting. The more demanding care, the less likely it is that carers will have time to attend to their own health care needs.

The profile of adult social care has probably never been higher and one of the biggest questions is how to manage demographic pressures on services as resources reduce, while aiming to improve outcomes and maintain quality. One group which brings these issues into sharp focus is the rising number of people with dementia and their carers. In this particular instance we have the additional focus given by the launch of the Prime Minister's dementia challenge.

Purpose: Although persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) require increasingly more assistance with activities of daily living as their disease progresses, the caregiving environment has received little attention as a source of predictors of their survival time.

Unpaid carers provide the backbone for community care, supplying the everyday support and care to users which paid carers would otherwise have to provide. There is increasing political awareness about the need to support carers if the rhetoric of community care is to be a reality. Both research and policy documents emphasise the carer's need for information. Carers see the Primary Health Care Team as being pivotal in providing them with advice, support and information. This paper describes a study to identify carers in a general practice and to provide them with information.

The quality of life of the person confronting the end stages of their life may be severely compromised without the support of family caregivers. Indeed, most people requiring palliative care would not be able to fulfill their preferences, such as care at home, without significant family caregiver input. As a consequence, health services are mandated to support the family alongside the person diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. In short, palliative care is supposed to be family centred. However, the quality and type of support made available to family caregivers has been questioned.