families

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.

Family caregivers may experience emotional and relational distress due to decreased intimacy and communication with their loved one at end-of-life. The purpose of the study was to examine intimacy behaviors in a family-patient relationship at the end-of-life with the central research question: Is there a difference in frequency of family caregivers’ intimacy acts, defined and recorded as verbal intimacy, affective intimacy, and physical intimacy with their dying loved one when comparing music therapy and chaplaincy?

Objectives: Frail and disabled individuals such as assisted living residents are embedded in "care convoys" comprised of paid and unpaid caregivers. We sought to learn how care convoys are configured and function in assisted living and understand how and why they vary and with what resident and caregiver outcomes. Method: We analyzed data from a qualitative study involving formal in-depth interviews, participant observation and informal interviewing, and record review.

This commentary discusses the information needs of family caregivers and care recipients in the United States. Health sciences library services and outreach activities that support family caregivers include: (1) advocacy, (2) resource building, and (3) programming and education. Ethical issues related to the privacy and confidentiality of clients are outlined in the commentary for information service providers.

Personal budgets aim to increase choice and independence for people with social care needs but they remain underused by people with mental health problems compared to other disability groups. The use of personal budgets may impact on families in a variety of ways, both positive and negative. This paper draws on interviews, undertaken in 2012-2013 with 18 family carers and 12 mental health service users, that explored experiences of family involvement in accessing and managing personal budgets for a person with mental health-related social care needs.

There have been two widely reported criminal cases where informal carers, including family members, have been found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of the vulnerable person in their care. In this article, Richard Griffith considers the duty on informal carers when caring for a person and the duty on district nurses to protect vulnerable persons from harm. 

We examined psychological parameters in family caregivers of palliative cancer patients before and after the death of the patients. Caregivers’ data about depression and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), quality‐of‐life (Short Form‐8 Health Survey), and social support (Oslo Social Support Scale) were collected at the beginning of home care (t1) and 2 months after the patient had died (t2). Regression models were employed to examine factors related to depression and anxiety in the bereaved caregivers. We interviewed 72 relatives, who were the primary caregiver of a patient.

Family members continue to be the predominant providers of support, care and accommodation for loved ones with mental health issues, and empirical studies suggest that accessing mental health respite can be helpful for both carers and consumers. However, the availability of, and access to, this respite in Australia is far from optimal. Major issues have also been identified such as low utilisation, the inappropriate and inflexible nature of services and the inability of services to respond to situations where multiple needs exist.

Background: Carer factors prevent patients achieving timely and appropriate hospital discharge. There is a lack of research into interventions to support carers at hospital discharge. Aim: To explore whether and how family carers are currently supported during patient discharge at end of life; to assess perceived benefits, acceptability and feasibility of using The Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) Approach in the hospital setting to support carers. Design: Qualitative.

Objective: To examine the relationships between family resilience and posttraumatic growth (PTG) of breast cancer survivors and caregiver burden among principal caregivers in China.<bold>Methods: </bold>Participants in this cross-sectional study comprised 108 women aged 26 to 74 years (M = 49, SD = 9) with early-stage breast cancer and 108 principal caregivers. Participants were recruited from a comprehensive cancer center of a public hospital in Shandong Province, China.