Portugal

Background: Middle-aged and older adults play an important role in the provision of informal support, however, the impact on the health of those individuals who provide informal care is unclear.

The end-of-life trajectory of cancer patients in palliative care (PC) elicits an anticipatory grief (AG) process in family caregivers (FCs). Although widely recognized, AG lacks conceptual clarification. This study aims to qualitatively explore the experience of FCs of patients with terminal cancer to identify the core characteristics and the specific adaptive challenges related to AG in the context of end-of-life caregiving. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in a clinical sample of 26 FCs of cancer patients in PC.

Objectives: Aging is pushing states to rethink long-term care policies in several dimensions. This study aims to characterize the reality of dependent older people regarding their demographic and health characteristics, to describe their informal carers and understand the availability of informal care.; Methods: A cross-sectional study was developed in Portugal in 2013.

Purpose: To estimate and characterize the use of informal care by people with vision impairment in Portugal.; Methods: A total of 546 visually impaired individuals were recruited from Portuguese hospitals. Clinical information was obtained from medical records, socio-demographic details and informal care use were collected during face-to-face interviews. In addition, participants responded to a functional vision questionnaire (activity inventory) to assess their visual ability.

Background: The amputation of a foot or a leg is one of the complications caused by diabetes that creates fear. After the amputation, the patient becomes dependent on a caregiver, who is often not prepared for this new phase of life. Knowing the factors that influence care delivery in caregivers of amputee type 2 diabetes patients is important from an heuristic point of view, since very few studies have focused on this population.

OBJECTIVE: No instrument has been developed and validated across cultures to measure the degree of support provided by informal carers to people with schizophrenia. We aimed to develop such a measure.

This paper intends to reflect on some of the predominant traits of caring for older vulnerable people in Portugal, where the most common care model is a mix of informal home-based provision and support from the public and private sectors. We shall address some issues concerning the risks and limits of informal caretaking of older dependent people based on a case study of a woman who has to fulfil multiple roles, pushing her to the limit of her ability to cope.