Caregivers/*psychology

Background: 'Choice' is increasingly pursued as a goal of social policy. However, the degree to which choice is exercised when entering an informal caring role is open to debate.; Aim: In this study, we examined the degree of choice and constraint in entering a caring role, and the relationship between choice and carers' well-being.; Methods: Data were derived from 1100 responses to a postal survey conducted in a British city.

Introduction: Reducing length of hospital stay for stroke survivors often creates a shift in the responsibility of care towards informal carers. Adjustment to the caregiving process is experienced by many carers as overwhelming, complex and demanding and can have a detrimental impact on mental and physical health and well-being. National policy guidelines recommend that carers' needs are considered and addressed; despite this, few interventions have been developed and empirically evaluated.

Background: Dementia can have significant detrimental impacts on the well-being of those with the disease and their carers. A range of computer-based interventions, including touchscreen-based interventions have been researched for use with this population in the hope that they might improve psychological well-being.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) causes distress in caregivers. The present study aims to examine the association between coping strategies and psychological distress in caregivers of ALS patients.; Methods: Coping strategies were assessed in 96 ALS informal caregivers by means of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. Data about caregivers' demographic characteristics, levels of burden, depression and anxiety (psychological distress) were also gathered by standardised questionnaires.

Caring for offspring diagnosed with eating disorders (EDs) puts caregivers under high levels of chronic stress, which have negative consequences for their health. Unfortunately, caregivers have received little attention from mental health professionals. Chronic stress experienced by informal caregivers has been associated with the alteration of body homeostasis, and therefore, the functioning of various physiological systems. This could be the basis of health problems in informal caregivers of people with EDs.

Background: Informal care is essential for many people with dementia (PwD), but it often results in a considerable burden for the caregiver. The perseverance time instrument integrates the aspect of perceived burden with the caregiver's capacity to cope with the burden, in contrast to most available instruments, which measure solely the burden of caregiving.

Background: Social support, relationships, and closeness are emphasized as important by both people with dementia and their informal caregivers. Psychosocial interventions might be helpful to reinforce the relationship between a person with dementia and his or her informal caregiver.

Background: Most adults with chronic conditions live at home and rely on informal caregivers to provide support. Caregiving can result in negative impacts such as poor mental and physical health. eHealth interventions may offer effective and accessible ways to provide education and support to informal caregivers.

Background: Informal dementia caregivers (IDCs) are often confronted with important fluctuations in care-related burden, commonly described as "good and bad days." These fluctuations are overlooked by traditional questionnaires focusing on the average experience. The experience sampling method (ESM) is based on the repeated collection of data in everyday life, thereby allowing the description of day-to-day fluctuations in IDC burden, and the identification of their correlates.

Well-prepared informal caregivers play an important role in heart failure (HF) care, so an instrument to evaluate their preparedness to care is important. To date, HF caregiver preparedness has been rarely investigated quantitatively. The Caregiver Preparedness Scale (CPS) has been used in other chronic condition populations, but its psychometric characteristics have never been tested in HF caregivers. The purpose of this study was to test the validity and reliability of the 8-item CPS in HF caregivers.