Hmic

As part of its National Strategy for Carers, the Government developed and approved in 2000 a set of fixed quality standards for local services to support carers - family and friends looking after those who are sick, disabled, vulnerable or frail. How Good is Your Service to Carers? is designed to help individuals, local groups and service organisations assess how well they meet these quality standards, which cover: information, providing a break; emotional support; support to care for and maintain the carer's own health; having a voice.

Objective: When it comes to dementia, caregiving can have adverse effects on the psychological and physical health of the informal caregiver. As yet, little is known about the impact of caring for a young dementia patient. This review provides an overview of the literature concerning the impact of early onset dementia (EOD) on informal caregivers and on children of EOD patients. The available literature comparing the impact on EOD and late onset dementia (LOD) caregivers will also be provided.

This guideline covers preventing, diagnosing, assessing and managing dementia in health and social care, and includes recommendations on Alzheimer’s disease. It aims to improve care for people with dementia by promoting accurate diagnosis and the most effective interventions, and improving the organisation of services.

This literature review is concerned with the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of support and services to informal carers of older people in England and Wales. It has been undertaken by the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the request of the Audit Commission (the Commission). The review is divided into three parts. It begins with an introduction summarising key issues that need to be considered when looking at the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of services for informal carers.

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of an education programme for patients and carers recovering from stroke. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Subjects and setting: One hundred and seventy patients admitted to a stroke rehabilitation unit and 97 carers of these patients. Interventions: The intervention group received a specifically designed stroke information manual and were invited to attend education meetings every two weeks with members of their multidisciplinary team.

Respite breaks can play an important role in reducing the stress on carers and giving them time to re-energise themselves. Philippa Hare looks at recent research that highlights the secret of a good break. 

Including informal care in economic evaluations is increasingly advocated but problematic. We investigated three well-known concerns regarding contingent valuation (CV): (1) the item non-response of CV values, (2) the sensitivity of CV values to the individual circumstances of caring, and (3) the choice of valuation method by comparing willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) values for a hypothetical marginal change in hours of informal care currently provided.

The new white paper in England is an opportunity for services to stop and think about their relationship with families. This article looks specifically at the situation of older family carers and why services often fail to 'make sense' to them. It shows that these families often do not get the support they need, leaving them in great anxiety about the future. Examples are given of practical initiatives that have worked successfully with older families.

A blow to spending on social services threatens a deterioration in quality of life for carers and users, but a new grant could protect this vulnerable group and ease some of the pressures on the NHS. [Journal abstract]