quality of life

SPECAL is a person-centred approach to the care of people with dementia which could also have the potential to reduce carer stress and lead to improvements in quality of life for people with dementia and their carers. The approach prioritises meaning over detail. It has 'three golden rules' for the care: do not ask direct questions, learn from the expert by listening and discovering what is important to the person with dementia, and do not contradict. This article describes the origins and rationale of SPECAL.

Objective: To evaluate and estimate the effect of psychosocial interventions on improving the quality of life (QoL) of adult cancer caregivers.

This article considers some of the dimensions of social support that can impact on the quality of life of people with cancer, their carers and their family. The article concentrates on emotional support, information support and tangible support.

The aim of this paper is to describe working with the carers (families) of adults with anorexia nervosa (AN), which is different from working with families of younger adolescents. The main difference is in the area of rights and responsibilities of both parties. Moreover, as AN in adults is often a chronic condition, the treatment goal may not focus on recovery, but instead on improvement in quality of life. Thus the spectrum of nature and degree of parental involvement in the treatment of adults with AN is much broader than in children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: There is a growing population of older patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) managed without dialysis in Thailand, and services have yet to be developed to specifically respond to the needs of this group. As a consequence this population are likely to have unmet needs with respect to health care and suffer from symptoms that could be better managed.

OBJECTIVE: This qualitative study explored experiences and health care needs during the last year of life among older people with ESRD, managed without dialysis, from the perspective of bereaved carers.

Reciprocal benefits may exist in relationships between carers and their adult sons/daughters with intellectual disabilities, but the topic has not been widely studied. The present study investigated whether older carers of adult children with intellectual disabilities perceive emotional and tangible reciprocity in their relationships and the association between perceived reciprocity with quality of life. The authors surveyed 91 parental carers (aged 50+ years, mean = 60.8).

BACKGROUND: Studies on emotional distress and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) broadened the traditional bio-medical focus in MS research, but little attention was paid to general well-being indicators.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate for the first time both ill-being and well-being dimensions in persons with MS (PwMSs), caregivers and health professionals, in relation to both health and life in general.

This article reviews 19 studies (1987–2004) on quality of life for family caregivers helping those with chronic physical illness. Here we explore the concepts of and instruments used to measure caregivers' quality of life. We were particularly interested in understanding stress-related variables and documenting factors influencing quality of life based on family stress theory. Findings show that various positive and negative terms equated with quality of life were used to measure them.

The aim of this study was to develop a measure of social care outcome, an equivalent to the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) in health, which could be used in a range of circumstances.