Mental disorders

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of a voluntary sector based befriending scheme in improving psychological wellbeing and quality of life for family carers of people with dementia. Design Single blind randomised controlled trial. Setting Community settings in East Anglia and London. Participants 236 family carers of people with primary progressive dementia. Intervention Contact with a befriender facilitator and offer of match with a trained lay volunteer befriender compared with no befriender facilita

Family carers of people with a severe mental illness play a vital, yet often unrecognized and undervalued role in Australian society. Respite care services can assist these family carers in their role; however, little is known about their access to these services. The paper addresses this knowledge gap. An exploratory field study was conducted throughout the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, to identify and examine the factors influencing the use and provision of respite services for older carers of people with a mental illness.

In 2009, The Social Care Institute for Excellence introduced guidelines for practitioners to support families in which parents have mental health problems. Here, Scie presents a case study demonstrating how the guidance could be successfully applied

Informal carers of an adult with mental illness have asked that respite care be an integral component of mental health service provision. The present study involved a pilot investigation of the effectiveness of accessing respite care for carers of individuals with a mental illness. It was hypothesised that compared to carers who have not accessed respite care, carers who access respite care would report lower burden and distress, higher life satisfaction and better health after their use of respite care.

AIM: To evaluate service users' and carers' views on the early intervention in psychosis service in relation to best-practice guidelines. METHOD: Both groups were sent a questionnaire on their experiences of care provided. RESULTS: The majority responded positively to many items, indicating they thought the team met best-practice guidance.

Longitudinal research on caregiver burden related to mental disorders based on representative samples is scarce. Previous results on the development of burden over time are inconsistent. This article aims to establish whether change in mental disorder status in the index persons predicts subjective burden in their spouses in terms of changed mental health over a period of 11 years.

OBJECTIVE: To provide descriptive information about a short-term educational programme for rural carers of people with a mental illness, living in the Loddon Campaspe Southern Mallee region.

METHOD: The Carers Education Exchange Programme is a flexible, needs-based model that can be modified to cater for individual groups. It consists of a number of sessions on topics relevant to caring for someone with a mental illness, held over a period of several weeks. The programme is offered at locations throughout the region, making it accessible to carers in isolated, rural areas.

Young carers are children and young people who look after a family member with illness, disability or mental health or substance misuse problems. Often the relative is not getting the support needed from statutory services. Of an estimated 175,000 young carers, 13,000, including 3,500 at primary school, provide more than 50 hours a week. Asks why they are hidden and discusses the failing education and adults’ services. Most adult carers, let alone young carers, are  unaware of their rights.

This paper reports on a qualitative study analyzing service-user (SU) and carer perspectives on medication compliance and their experience of compulsory treatment. Eleven SUs and eight carers were interviewed. The research is set against the background of changes to mental health legislation in England, in the form of Supervised Community Treatment. This signals a change in community mental health practice and urges a reconsideration of concepts such as compliance, concordance and coercion.