Dementia

Background: providing support to a family member with dementia often comes at a cost to the quality of life (QoL) of the carer (caregiver), giving rise to current and future unmet needs for health and social care and support themselves. These have important implications for costeffective health and social care support services and pathways.

Investigations into the act of proving care to a dementing family member typically approach the phenomenon from a stress/burden paradigm. Many studies have sought to highlight the relationship between of a range of dementia care factors (such as illness duration, patient symptoms/characteristics, service provision, etc.) and the experience of caregiver stress.

Examines the effect of carer stress management using the Carers' Checklist (Hodgson et al 1998) as a measure of outcome. Pre-course and post-course questionnaires were used with carers, who agreed to attend a structured stress management course. The carers who attended demonstrated a better awareness and understanding of stress and its management following the course. Positive measures of outcome were also determined by a decrease in the carers' rating in frequency of dementia-related problems, carer burden of dementia-related problems and overall carer burden.

Despite the fact that African American, Latino, and Asian Americans represent the fastest growing segments of the population in the United States over the age of 65, they remain understudied in intervention research. This article describes the process of developing and implementing a psycho-educational intervention for African American caregivers which was informed by a review of the care giving and intervention literature, and stress, appraisal, and coping theory. The intervention included 12 modules that lasted approximately 90 minutes each.

Background: Informal dementia caregiving has traditionally been perceived as an extremely stressful process; however, more recent research has started to focus on the positive aspects of providing care. Studies indicate that caregivers who derive something positive out of caregiving have better well-being. However, there has been little exploration of the factors linked to caregivers identifying positive aspects of providing care. The aim of the current study was to explore the predictors of finding meaning in caregiving.

We conducted a systematic review of the effectiveness of networked ICT interventions in supporting carers of people with dementia. Five bibliographic databases were searched and a total of 1,456 abstracts were identified as potentially relevant. From these we identified 15 papers describing five interventions: ComputerLink, AlzOnline, Caring for Others and two studies from the REACH project (TLC and CTIS). The interventions reviewed were multifaceted with elements of networked peer support.

This DVD has been developed for those caring for people with dementia. It explains how symptoms are caused and how they affect the behaviour patterns of people with dementia. Expert advice from a consultant psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist is included. Carers also share their experience of learning what it is like to live with a partner with dementia.

This article describes an innovative project for people with dementia and their carers at Glyndebourne Opera House. During November and December 2008 and 2009, the Glyndebourne education department provided a series of 4 sessions for people with dementia and their carers. The Glyndebourne project was jointly funded and developed through a partnership between Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Lewes Villages Dementia Carers Outreach Service. Between 20 and 30 people with dementia and their carers took part in the project each year.