family carer

Background: Most people living with dementia want to remain living in their own homes and are supported to do so by family carers. No interventions have consistently demonstrated improvements to people with dementia’s life quality, functioning, or other indices of living as well as possible with dementia. We have co-produced, with health and social care professionals and family carers of people with dementia, a new intervention (NIDUS-family).

Background: Adult children are often key carers of frail older parents providing care for a long period of time in different care contexts. However, research concerning adult children’s caregiving experiences, from providing home-based care to facing the death of a parent in a nursing home is sparse. Thus, the aim was to explore the transition from living at home to moving into and living in a nursing home and the time after death from the perspective of next of kin to an older person.

Background: Rising global demand for informal care makes it increasingly important to have a comprehensive understanding of carers’ experiences. However, research is thought to be skewed towards women’s experience, leading some to call men ‘forgotten carers’. Methods: A systematic review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines was conducted to assess the gender balance of study samples of family carers of someone living with cancer.

Background: This paper explores telecare manager and other 'stakeholder' perspectives on the nature, extent and impact of family and other unpaid/informal carers' involvement in the provision of telecare equipment and services for older people. Methods: Data used in the paper are derived from a larger study on telecare provision by local councils in England.

Aim: The family plays a key role in supporting and caring for patients who have a gastrointestinal stoma because of cancer. This study investigated the quality of life of family members caring for such patients. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted in 2020 in Iran. The study sample consisted of 250 family members caring for cancer patients with an intestinal stoma. The Caregiver Quality of Life Index–Cancer scale was used to measure quality of life.

The majority of people living with dementia reside in the community and are often reliant on the support of informal carers to do so. Family carers face many challenges in supporting the person with dementia to remain at home, and short-term respite care is a valued service that offers a temporary break from the role. Respite cottages provide short-term care in a residential home-like setting with a limited number of clients and is a more flexible approach to accessing the service.

Background: Informal caregivers represent the foundation of the palliative care workforce and are the main providers of end of life care. Financial pressures are among the most serious concerns for many carers and the financial burden of end of life caregiving can be substantial. Methods: The aim of this critical debate paper was to review and critique some of the key evidence on the financial costs of informal caregiving and describe how these costs represent an equity issue in palliative care.

Background The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire - Expanded (MQOL-E) and the Quality of Life in Life-Threatening Illness-Family Carer/Caregiver version (QOLLTI-F) are developed for use with patients facing the end of life and their family carers, respectively. They are also developed for possible use as companion instruments. Contemporary measurement validity theory places emphasis on response processes, i.e. what people feel and think when responding to items.

Background The START (STrAtegies for RelaTives) intervention reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms of family carers of relatives with dementia at home over 2 years and was cost-effective. Aims To assess the clinical effectiveness over 6 years and the impact on costs and care home admission. Method We conducted a randomised, parallel group, superiority trial recruiting from 4 November 2009 to 8 June 2011 with 6-year follow-up (trial registration: ISCTRN 70017938).

Background and Objectives: Older adults face significant long-term care and health care costs. But some of these costs can potentially be offset through family caregivers who may serve as substitutes for formal care or directly improve the care recipient’s health and reduce health care utilization and expenditures.