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Results of the UK’s largest ever survey of people with Parkinson’s and carers

Increasingly there is greater emphasis on user/carer involvement in the delivery of mental health care. There are five levels of participation from none at all to partnership and optimal involvement. A two-year pilot steering group was established by a health authority in December 2000 and criteria for independent evaluation agreed. These included the context, data collection, analysis and report, and recommendations based on the findings to increase user/carer involvement in all aspects of mental health service delivery.

This paper examines the views of carers who have received a carer’s assessment following the introduction of the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004. The Act ensured for the first time that a carer’s desire to take part in paid work, education or training, and leisure opportunities was considered. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with carers to illuminate their lived experiences.

Aim.  The aim of this study was to review research literature over the past 10 years on respite care for people affected by severe mental illness; and identify key implications for nursing practice in provision of respite care for family caregivers of people with severe mental illness.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease or related disorder (ADRD) living at home among a diverse sample of 103 family caregivers. The study involved secondary analysis of in-depth transcribed interview data using van Kaam’s rigorous four phase, 12-step psychophenomenological method. A total of 2,115 descriptive expressions were categorized into 38 preliminary structural elements. Eight essential structural elements emerged from an analysis of the preliminary structural elements.

Around 6 million adults in Britain help and support family, partners or friends who are ill, frail or disabled. The care they provide is unpaid. They include over 1.5 million carers who devote at least 20 hours per week to their caring activities. However, most adults provide that level of care at some point in their lives. The UK, Scottish Executive and Welsh Assembly Governments have adopted strategies that aim to support carers in their caring role and enable them to continue caring for as long as they wish to do so.

The Caring with Confidence scheme, launched in April 2009, is described. The scheme had been designed to improve support for carers in England over 18 by equipping them with skills to help them in their role. The scheme operates group sessions and online interactive sessions on subjects such as the emotions involved in caring for someone and how to develop coping strategies.

The author examines how a government-backed scheme is helping to give carers the skills to sustain them in their roles.

Seeks views on a new strategy for carers that will set out how more can be done to support them:

Shared Lives schemes are increasingly being used to support people with dementia and they are providing cheaper than alternative forms of help, reports Natlie Valios. 

Carers play a central role in many healthcare users' lives. Although services are recognising that they must be valued and supported, there is much more to be done to ensure this unpaid workforce's wellbeing, reports Jennifer Taylor.