Needs

More than 5 million informal carers provide support to individuals who wish to remain within their own homes. The role of informal carers in maintaining people within their own homes has been identified as crucial. This article considers the assessment of need of informal carers in the primary care setting, placing particular emphasis on the role of the district nurse as an advocate for informal carers when working with other health and social care service providers.

Policy rhetoric over recent decades has promoted social inclusion of the more vulnerable sectors of society, such as people with learning difficulties. This study aimed to describe the experiences of adults with learning difficulties in north-east England and their family and to appraise their care. Thirty-five people with a learning difficulty and/or a family member were interviewed. A model of social coherence was developed that moves beyond the self-limiting debates about social inclusion and exclusion.

Specialist mental health services for older people have grown rapidly and successfully over the past two decades, aiming to offer services that are comprehensive, accessible, responsive, individualised, multidisciplinary, accountable, and systematic. As with all mental health problems, the burden falls on primary care (where minor morbidity often goes undetected) and specialist services tend to be reserved for those conditions and patients where diagnosis and management is problematic.

Unpaid family carers are the main providers of care for older people in the community. Local authority occupational therapists are required by law to assess the needs of such carers in their work, targeting their interventions to support carers' roles. This small qualitative study identified the perceived needs of nine family carers of adults with physical disabilities in one English county, exploring the extent to which these needs were met by local authority occupational therapists.

To help fulfil their responsibilities towards unpaid carers, service providers need some idea of the carer's situation and how many might require support. This paper argues that estimating the prevalence of unpaid care across service planning and budgeting cycles provides a better indication of the size and composition of the carer population than estimates at a point in time. The article presents prevalence rates of unpaid adult care from the British Household Panel Survey.

Background: The prevention of suicide is a key aim for health care authorities and society in general and family members have a principal role in caring for suicidal people. However, the support needs of these essential family carers are relatively unknown. Aim: To explore the support needs of family members of suicidal people. Method: Eighteen participants were interviewed using a short topic guide. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis and confirmed by discussion. Findings: Family members of suicidal people have unmet needs (this was the main theme).

Aims and objectives.  This study aimed to describe the significant others’ experiences and needs when a person is critically ill or injured in an acute care setting.

Background.  Being a significant other to a hospitalised critically ill or injured patient is a heavily distressing life event. Addressing significant others’ needs adequately has been shown to be essential to mitigate the psychological consequences of such distressing events.

Design.  A systematic review of qualitative research. Methods.  Meta-ethnographic synthesis was used for analysis.

The literature on carers of people with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is negligible compared to the vast literature on carers of people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and little research has compared the two groups. Research has mainly focused on identifying the behavioural characteristics of people with FTD or AD. The impact of these behaviours on the psychological well-being of carers of people with FTD is relatively unexplored.

Objectives: Identify factors of informal caregivers, caregiving, and people with multiple sclerosis (MS) receiving assistance that are associated with perceptions of caregiver accomplishment. Methods: National data were collected in a telephone interview survey of 530 informal caregivers and analyzed using an ordered logistic regression model to identify factors associated with perceptions of caregiver accomplishment among 442 of these informal caregivers (caregivers providing all data in their survey responses needed for the regression model). Results: We found t

Looks at how the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act will improve the lives of the UK's six million carers.