older people

Family carers are a major source of help and assistance to the persons they provide care for. They are also major contributors to the welfare system, balancing the national health care expenditure. Increasing attention, in research as well as government policy, is being paid to their role as informal caregivers. Support to family carers seems to be a new ‘buzzword’ in Swedish Government policy. However, supporting family carers may prove to be a more complex endeavour than one initially might be led to believe.

Changes to approaches in dementia care and subsequent services over the last decade have meant that quality of care for people with dementia and their carers has undoubtedly improved. However, few in-depth dementia service evaluation studies are documented. Those that are tend to focus on traditional evaluation measures such as length of stay or functional improvement, or they concentrate on the perspectives of carers. This study used multiple methods within Fourth Generation Methodology to evaluate (SPECAL) Specialized Early Care of Alzheimer's, a dementia care service and approach.

'They look after their own' is a phrase with which we are all familiar but to what extent do ethnic and minority groups care for and support for their family members? Given the current focus on carers, Rosalind Willis in this article presents the findings of a preliminary study into ethnicity and family support, and highlights that what is generally defined as 'support' may perhaps be interpreted differently within and because of different cultures. 

In the present meta-analysis, we integrated findings from 228 studies on the association of six caregiving-related stressors and caregiving uplifts with burden and depressed mood. Care recipients' behavior problems showed stronger associations with caregiver outcomes than other stressors did. The size of the relationships varied by sample characteristics: Amount of care provided and care receivers' physical impairments were less strongly related to burden and depression for dementia caregivers than for caregivers of nondemented older adults.

In the first of our Future Care series, Care and technology in the 21st centuryexplores the current landscape on care and technology and calls for a technological transformation in the way we support families caring for ill, frail and disabled loved ones.

The report argues that the way families already use technology to work, plan their lives, shop and socialize should also be reflected in how we care and calls on the Government to set up a new independent, expert taskforce to drive innovation and partnership on care technology.

Personalisation is about letting older and disabled people take risks others take for granted. But this means councils must find new ways of keeping them safe. [Introduction]

Ian James, Ian Powell and Katharina Reichelt describe how they encourage carers to monitor their own thoughts as a way of understanding the strong emotions they experience. This knowledge can then help carers to find better strategies for coping with difficult caring situations

During 2003 the Audit Commission conducted a study of services and support for the carers of older people in England, with a particular emphasis on the implementation of the national Carer's Strategy. In order to place this study in context, a background study was commissioned into the approaches taken in a number of other countries to supporting carers.

BACKGROUND: Primary research, including qualitative research, as well as experts working in social services and aged care have identified the mixed feelings carers experience when the person they have been caring for is admitted into a residential aged care facility permanently. They have raised the importance of understanding these experiences as a means to implementing policies and programs that enhance carers' well-being.

In this article, the authors discuss their research to explore how technology might assist family members caring for a relative with dementia at home, outlining their research process, outcomes, and recommendations.