Long term care

Objective: To write a narrative review of the role of primary care physicians in the long-term care of people with dementia living at home, with a focus on psychosocial interventions, the provision of information and carer support, behavioural and psychological symptoms and case management.

Methods: The systematic review carried out for the NICE/SCIE Guidelines was updated from January 2006, Cochrane Reviews were identified and other publications found by consultations with experts.

Long-term care of the elderly and the disabled rests on a vast network of informal caregivers. This qualitative study examined the effects of caregiving on the health and wellbeing of a small, non-representative sample of urban women caregivers. These 11 informants participated in two interviews. Health was conceptualized in a holistic manner, consistent with the view of the World Health Organization and Health Canada. The caregiving experience, as described in this study, was life changing and consuming.

Aims.  This paper reports a study to investigate the relationships between informal and formal care, changing relationships over time, impact of integrated care, and theoretical and methodological lessons that can be drawn from research on this topic.

This article summarises PhD research undertaken by the author and provides readers with the carer assessment tools validated in the study. [Journal abstract]

Reviews policy trends for informal carers which have been implemented in various countries between 1996 - 1998. The article focuses on respite care and direct payments for carers of older ill and disabled adults.

Joanne Schofield and Jack Buckley Mellor explain the value of having a carer available to offer support to other carers with relatives on a continuing care ward