Recruitment

Context: Hospice is a service for those with a life expectancy of six months or less. Family caregivers suffer from depression and anxiety as they care for their loved one until they die. Little is known about how research participants decide to consent to participate in clinical trials in the hospice setting. Objectives: This pilot study sought to answer two research questions: 1) In what way do demographic characteristics, mental health, and perceived caregiving experience impact the decision by caregivers to participate in hospice clinical trials?

This forum expands and reframes the lens of dementia caregiving research among diverse racial and ethnic groups to better understand the unique needs, stressors, and strengths of multicultural and racial-ethnic family caregivers in the United States. By providing more diverse and inclusive knowledge on caregiving to older adults in the United States, we can create a new path forward with regards to caregiving research. Throughout the article, major questions and answers are supported by critiquing some of the caregiving literature.

Background: With patient and public engagement in many aspects of the healthcare system becoming an imperative, the recruitment of patients and members of the public into service and research roles has emerged as a challenge. The existing literature carries few reports of the methods – successful and unsuccessful – that researchers engaged in user-centred design (UCD) projects are using to recruit participants as equal partners in co-design research.

Family members are delivering unpaid care to loved-ones because direct payments are insufficient to hire staff, writes Belinda Schwehr. 

Carers can be defined as someone who ‘spends a significant proportion of their life providing unpaid support to family or potentially friends. This could be caring for a relative, partner or friend who is ill , frail , disabled or has mental health or substance misuse problems.1 Such carers are not to be confused with paid carers (often described as Care workers, Senior care workers, community support, outreach workers and personal assistants). However, those employed in such roles may also be carers in their own time for friends or family.