carers

The present survey aimed to describe and compare the main needs and problems experienced by informal caregivers of Black Caribbean and White native-born patients in their last year of life. Out of the 106 Black Caribbean and 110 White patients identified as dying during the survey period, 50 interviews per ethnic group were conducted, a response rate of 47% and 45%. Out of these, 31 respondents representing Black Caribbean and 28 representing White dependants said that they bore the brunt of caregiving.

As more people with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia live in the community, often with their own families, carers need increasing support. Reports on a small research study which found a link between carers' knowledge of the condition and their ability to manage problems, and between their sense of satisfaction with services and their communications with the mental health team.

Current government policy emphasises professional accountability, Best Value, evidence-based practice and outcomes for users and carers. In this context, being able to demonstrate the effectiveness of routine practice is increasingly important. This article considers the key issues in collecting information about the outcomes of equipment and adaptations. These include: the assessment of the full range of outcomes; the timing of data collection; the use of standardised and individualised measures; and linking outcomes to interventions.

Objective: In this follow-up study, the long-term influence of group living homes (GLHs) on informal caregiver distress was compared with modern yet regular nursing homes (NHs).

Method: Informal caregivers of GLH (N = 37) and NH residents (N = 49) were studied at the time of admission, 6 months thereafter, and approximately 24 months after admission. Repeated measures of ANOVA were performed to study group-by-time effects on psychopathology, role overload, and feelings of competence.

In this second of two articles on community mental health nursing in dementia care, John Keady and Trevor Adams review published accounts of the CMHN role in work with people with dementia and their carers, and suggest a way in which the role might develop in future.

The present paper presents a descriptive summary of the views and experiences of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) as they have been represented in research and other literature. The authors develop further the DoH Research Initiative on Learning Disability: Proposal for a Research Review on the Views and Experiences of Users and Carers, a review report commissioned by the Department of Health on the views and experiences of users and family carers focusing on the ways in which research might contribute to policy and practice.

Increasing numbers of developed welfare states now operate cash-for-care schemes in which service users are offered cash payments in place of traditional social services. Such schemes raise concerns about the extent to which they include and support carers. This paper aims to explore some of these issues through an analysis of a cash-for-care initiative piloted in England in 2005–07: the Individual Budgets (IBs) pilot projects.

Fifty caregivers and 41 heart failure patients participated in a study examining the association of caregiver characteristics and the caregiving environment on caregiver burden. Using a cross-sectional design, caregivers were interviewed face-to-face using a caregiver characteristic/demographic tool designed for this study, the Centers for Epidemiological Studies Short Depression Scale, the Caregiver Reaction Assessment questionnaire, and the New York Heart Association Functional Classification Guide to obtain the caregiver's perception of patient disease severity.

Purpose: Our objective in this analysis was to determine how the duration of caregiving interacts with key care demands (i.e., severity of problem behaviors) to influence the institutionalization of individuals suffering from dementia. Methods: We utilized multiregional data from 4,761 caregivers of individuals with dementia over a 3-year period. We conducted multinomial logistic and Cox proportional hazards analyses to determine the moderating effects of duration on behavior problems when institutionalization was predicted.