carers

Ian James, Ian Powell and Katharina Reichelt describe how they encourage carers to monitor their own thoughts as a way of understanding the strong emotions they experience. This knowledge can then help carers to find better strategies for coping with difficult caring situations

BACKGROUND: Little account has been taken of quality of life (QoL) among family carers of adults with an intellectual disability (ID) and family carers of adults with a mental illness (MI), particularly the female ageing carers' perceived stigma. We explore whether there are differences in the significant predictors of female ageing family carers' QoL between family carers of adults with ID and family carers of adults with MI and aim to examine the effect of these differences in stigma on carer QoL between the two groups.

Carers have a pressing need to be directed to good sources of information, help and support. NHS organisations appear to be consulting with carers much less than the level envisaged in the National Strategy for Carers. There is still too much poor or indifferent consultation practice and service providers appear not to be following known good practice guidelines. Over eight out of ten carers said that caring had a negative impact on their own health. Almost nine out of ten reported that they feel stress, anxiety, depression or loss of sleep, due to being a carer.

During 2003 the Audit Commission conducted a study of services and support for the carers of older people in England, with a particular emphasis on the implementation of the national Carer's Strategy. In order to place this study in context, a background study was commissioned into the approaches taken in a number of other countries to supporting carers.

BACKGROUND: Primary research, including qualitative research, as well as experts working in social services and aged care have identified the mixed feelings carers experience when the person they have been caring for is admitted into a residential aged care facility permanently. They have raised the importance of understanding these experiences as a means to implementing policies and programs that enhance carers' well-being.

In this article, the authors discuss their research to explore how technology might assist family members caring for a relative with dementia at home, outlining their research process, outcomes, and recommendations.

This ground-breaking report by Government, Employers for Carers and Carers UK, sets out the economic case for supporting the growing number of workers who also care for older or disabled relatives.

The UK Government has highlighted the need to develop appropriate information and support services for informal carers. Previous research that has investigated informal caring has found that managing medication is one aspect of the caring role that presents its own problems; however, these have not been subject to detailed examination. The objective of the present paper was to report the number and type of problems experienced by informal carers when managing medication for older care recipients, and to relate these to measures of coping and health.