Scopus scopus - exported 1/8/16

Background: Those who become active caregivers out of their simple need to be included in their loved ones' experience may act as a force in the support and sustenance of the person with cancer. Apart from family members, individuals "considered as family" by the patient may actively participate in the patient's cancer journey.

Introduction: intermediate care has been developed to support older people to remain living in their own homes, combining a higher level of support with a rehabilitation focus. Evidence around their effectiveness remains mixed and there is ambiguity around the components.

Aims: to establish the impact of intermediate care on institutional free survival in frail older people referred for needs assessment in New Zealand (NZ).

Previous research has shown that palliative home care use is influenced by variables such as age, socioeconomic status, presence of an informal carer, diagnosis, and care dependency. However, there is little information on its association with other health service use. This study compared 121 cancer patients referred to Hospital at Home (HAH) for palliative care with a sample of 206 cancer patients not referred who died within the same period. Electronic record linkage of NHS databases enabled investigation of patients' total input of care in their last year of life.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is the most common form of motor neuron disease in adults. People with ALS become severely disabled when the disease is progressing. The confrontation with constant losses, with dying and death poses enormous challenges both for them and for informal carers, who are most often spouses or close family members. However, there is evidence that the quality of life of ALS patients is often quite high and not correlated with the physical status. What does this mean for the quality of life of the caregivers?

Objective: The lack of adequate conceptualisation and operationalisation of quality of life (QoL) limits the ability to have a consistent body of evidence to improve QoL research and practice in informal caregiving for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Thus, we conducted a meta-synthesis of qualitative research to improve the conceptual understanding of the experiences of MS carers and to identify factors that affect carers’ QoL.

There has been little work on the ethical issues facing non-professionals who care for relatives or others with dementia. A qualitative pilot study was conducted in ten such individuals, eight of them women, caring for persons drawn mainly from one general practice. The interviews indicated that many of the dilemmas faced by carers are ethical and that the issues differ from those faced by professionals. Ethical issues are sometimes the most troublesome matter for carers. Unlike issues for professionals, they arise from a personal context and are shaped by long-term relationships.

Demographic changes in Europe show an increased demand for quality care for family members, through innovative, broadly accessible solutions that have an overarching focus of improving the quality of life for carers through learning. DISCOVER platform is such a technology, based on existing eLearning systems and delivers digital skills training for carers, focusing in particular on opportunities for informal carers as a socially excluded group. DISCOVER business strategy provides a sustainable entity in order to deliver benefits to the carer, and cared-for communities in the future.

This paper examines the conversational and discursive processes through which situations are constructed as a risk by informal carers and community psychiatric nurses working with people who have dementia. The data were taken from 24 tape recordings of domiciliary meetings between primary informal carers for people with dementia and their community psychiatric nurse (CPN). Data were analysed using techniques developed from conversation analysis and discourse analysis. The analysis identifies four stages associated with the construction of risk by informal carers and CPNs.

In ethnic minority groups, family members often play an absolutely central role in providing care for their mentally ill relatives. The aim of the study was to explore how the relatives of mentally ill Iraqi refugees experience their role as informal caregivers. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with seven relatives of Iraqi mental health outpatients. The study indicated that Iraqi relatives felt severely burdened in their everyday life.