Education

Keshet, a course for family members of persons’ coping with mental illness, was developed to enhance positive family cognitive communication skills. Improving communication with the use of mediation techniques, primarily used by therapists, creates a learning environment viewed as a strategy of Knowledge Translation. To examine the effectiveness of Keshet in improving attitudes, problem solving, communication skills and attenuation of burden a quasi-experimental research design was applied with study and control condition.

Objective: Little is known about dementia and caregiving among the rapidly growing Vietnamese American population. This qualitative study elicited insights on culturally tailoring an intervention to address mental health needs in Vietnamese American dementia caregivers from Vietnamese American mental health professionals. Methods: Eight Vietnamese American mental health professionals were interviewed to explore: experiences working with and needs of the community; Vietnamese attitudes toward treatment; and acculturation in Vietnamese caregiving.

Background: Family caregivers are an important resource for providing care to elderly living at home. How nurses and other health professionals interact with family caregivers can have both a positive and a negative impact on the family caregivers’ situation. We lack knowledge of Norwegian nurses’ and other health professionals’ participation in educational programmes about family caregivers’ needs and situations.

Background: Confabulations are often observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and can increase family caregivers’ burdens. Previous studies have focused on the relationship between confabulation and cognitive ability. However, few studies have investigated the association between confabulation and familial factors. Here, we aimed to examine whether confabulation relates to familial factors, such as the level of family caregivers’ expressed emotion or the level of functioning of the family.

Objectives: Demographic change has led to an increase of older people in need of long-term care in nearly all European countries. Informal carers primarily provide the care and support needed by dependent people. The supply and willingness of individuals to act as carers are critical to sustain informal care resources as part of the home health care provision. This paper describes a longitudinal study of informal care in six European countries and reports analyses that determine those factors predicting the outcomes of family care over a one-year period.

Background Stroke affects the entire family system. Failure to meet the needs of caregivers leads to physical and mental overburdening. Stroke caregivers may benefit from professional support. The literature reviews have shown that there is still no clarity concerning the most appropriate set-up of a support programme. In Germany, there is no stroke caregiver support programme that operates throughout the course of rehabilitation. Aim The aim was to develop a complex intervention programme for stroke caregivers in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany.

Background: Little is known about the experiences of family caregivers of hospitalized patients with confirmed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus/multiresistant gram-negative bacteria (MRSA/MRGN) diagnosis at the end of life. The study at hand is a subproject of an interdisciplinary cooperation project that aims at developing a patient-, family-, and team-centered approach in dealing with MRSA/MRGN-positive hospitalized patients in palliative and geriatric care.

Background: In dementia care, a large number of treatment decisions are made by family carers on behalf of their family member who lacks decisional capacity; advance care planning can support such carers in the decision-making of care goals. However, given the relative importance of advance care planning in dementia care, the prevalence of advance care planning in dementia care is poor. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of advance care planning with family carers in dementia care homes. Design: Paired cluster randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Stroke causes disability that affects the life of patients, their relatives and the society in general. Global healthcare policies, suggest the sooner possible discharge of stroke patients from hospitals, but the transition to home is a stressful experience for family caregivers who are suddenly faced with the responsibility of homecare provision.

Aim: It is unclear whether carer‐held records (CHR) are useful for patients with dementia. In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of the CHR for patients with dementia at the municipal level. Methods: Candidates for CHR use in this study were informal caregivers of patients with dementia who lived at home in Kawanishi, Japan. CHR users were those who are involved in the patient's care and treatment, such as informal caregivers, family physicians, dementia specialists, care professionals, and care service coordinators, known as ‛care managersʼ in Japan.