Psychiatry

Background There is no reliable and valid self-report measure of depressive symptoms for people with learning disabilities. Aims To develop a scale for individuals with learning disability, and a supplementary scale for carers. Method Items were generated from a range of assessment scales and through focus groups. A draft scale was piloted and field tested using matched groups of people with or without depression, and their carers.

The need for accurate information about the mental health problems of multicultural communities requires valid measures of mental health for use in a number of languages and cultural contexts. Measures of psychopathological symptoms leading to a diagnosis have been especially criticised for their universal application, without attention to their limitations across cultures. Yet, measures are crucial to assess recovery and the performance of services, and to take account of carer and user views.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

My wife, Pauline, died from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 59. She was 51 when diagnosed after several years of problems. I cared for her at home. For the first 3 years, I maintained my employment, albeit on an increasingly part-time basis, but resigned from work and cared for her full-time for 5 years when her needs demanded round-the-clock attention. She remained in her own home to within 5 weeks of her death, when fracturing my leg put paid to my direct caring role.

The article informs that the community health mental health team where the author worked as a community psychiatric nurse (CPN) a few years ago had a referral from a GP for a woman in her thirties with anxiety and depression. When he went to assess this patient, he discovered that she was the daughter of a previous patient of mine--her mother having had chronic schizophrenia. Nina, the new patient, had been offered a wide range of treatments in the past but had never spoken about growing up with a mother who had schizophrenia.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a group psychosocial intervention for children (aged 12–18) of a parent with mental illness (copmi).

In 2004 the Royal College of Psychiatrists made it clear that it was committed to increasing the involvement of service users and carers throughout psychiatric education. This has been mandatory since June 2005 and it has been a compulsory aspect of psychiatric training for schemes to demonstrate a meaningful involvement of users and carers in the training of psychiatrists.

Context: Study of the problems and requirements of the main caregiver providing home care for dementia patients that have resulted in the patient being institutionalised.

Objectives: To determine the reasons for placing the dementia patient in an institution.

Resources: Self-administered questionnaire of 48 questions on the patient and caregiver, including a list of complaints, given to the main caregiver. Medical questionnaire on the patient filled in by the geriatrician.

Considerable suffering is experienced by carers of patients with dementia. Most existing studies do not consider the coexistence of subjective and objective aspects that cause, interacting to each other, this suffering. The authors: (1) define the high-risk group of caregivers on the bases of the scores obtained on the four scales evaluating burden, distress, depression and anxiety (BDDA) taken into account simultaneously and (2) evaluate risk factors related to the high level of BDDA. 419 elderly outpatients with dementia and their caregivers were enrolled.

Research has highlighted the influence of psychosocial factors on the wellbeing of carers of people with dementia. This study aimed to investigate the interrelationships between life events, depression and social support in carers of people with dementia. Participants were 72 carers of people with dementia. They were interviewed using the Bedford College Life Events and Difficulties Schedule and the Geriatric Depression Scale. The results showed that 31 (43%) of carers were depressed.

Objective: To gain insight into caregivers' understanding of the causes of behaviours they find problematic in people with Alzheimer's disease in order to inform the development of educational strategies.