carers

Carers are seen as legitimate stakeholders in wider policy processes and increasingly as ‘co-producers’ and key providers of care. Mental health carers, however, especially those caring for relatives subject to compulsory care and treatment, often feel overlooked and marginalised, caring in complex circumstances with little or no professional support. The Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (MHCT Act) implemented in 2005 aspired to change this for the better.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to: (i) obtain baseline data on the extent of carer involvement across a representative sample of hospital and community patients within an integrated area health service; and (ii) examine perspectives on discharge planning and community care among patients and their carers to identify information and resources they consider important.

Approximately 1,500 people a day die of cancer. Most are cared for by an informal caregiver. The purpose of this study was to identify the unmet spiritual needs of informal caregivers and explore the relationships between the patient's symptom distress, caregivers' unmet needs, and caregivers' depressive symptomatology at the time of admission to hospice. The sample consisted of 110 caregivers of hospice home care patients with cancer. The Spiritual Needs Inventory and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were administered to caregivers of newly admitted patients.

Background: Although informal end-of-life care is associated with significant physical and psychological morbidity for caregivers, few interventions have been developed to meet these needs. This study aimed to identify existing coping and support mechanisms among informal cancer caregivers in order to inform intervention development.

Method: One-to-one semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken with 20 informal cancer caregivers of home palliative care patients.

The government strategy 'Caring About Carers' acknowledges that state care provision can never replace that of informal carers. Nurses working in primary and community health care potentially have a key role in identifying informal carers, meeting their health needs and ensuring they know of their rights to an assessment under the Carers Act. 

One common myth about ethno-cultural minority family caregivers is that they do not use formal services. This study examined the intention of using home support and long-term care facilities by a random sample of 339 Chinese-Canadian family caregivers, using a modified version of the Andersen-Newman service utilization model. Filial piety, caregiving burden, care receivers, and health conditions are the common predictors identified.

Family caregiving is a stressful process, especially when the complexity of being an immigrant or ethnic minority is added. This paper examined service barriers experienced by Chinese immigrant family caregivers in Canada and the predictors of different types of barriers. Principle component analysis was performed with the barriers reported loading onto cultural barriers, administrative problems, circumstantial challenges, perceived negative quality of services, and personal attitudes.

Partners appear to be the main perpetrators of neglect according to a new report that has triggered a government review of its No Secrets adult protection guidance. The author reports. 

The French system of social care policy for dependent older people is an allowance known as the Prestation Specifique Dependance (PSD) from January 1997 to December 2001 and subsequently the Allocation Personalisee a l'Automie (APA) from January 2002 for services or to pay a member of the family. The chapter covers demographic factors underlying this policy development with statistical tables, and the two principal stages of French social care policy, examining the impact of these on carers who may be either formal (paid) or informal (unpaid).