Research

Purpose Service user and carer involvement in all aspects of the health and care research process, from co-applicant on funding applications to active engagement in a research study, is now a requirement for most research funders. However, as co-production increases and service users and carers take on more responsibilities, this involvement has legal, governance and ethical implications. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the issues and consider potential solutions.

Background: Patient/carer involvement in palliative care research has been reported as complex, difficult and less advanced compared to other areas of health and social care research. There is seemingly limited evidence on impact and effectiveness. Aim: To examine the evidence regarding patient/carer involvement in palliative care research and identify the facilitators, barriers, impacts and gaps in the evidence base.

Many children, adolescents, teenagers, and young adults have caring responsibilities for parents and family members. These young carers and young adult carers are present in every country. Their responsibilities include domestic chores as well as intimate personal care and other forms of helping which are generally seen as the responsibility of adult professionals. First, this article provides an overview and critical perspective on young carers research.

Background: The degree of informal caregiver involvement influences the self-management of individuals living with bipolar disorder (BD).; Objective: This article aims to provide a description of informal caregivers' learning experiences in self-management support of BD in order to guide professionals in tailoring future psychosocial and psychoeducational interventions.; Design: In-depth open interviews with 10 informal caregivers of patients with BD who followed treatment in the context of specialized outpatient bipolar care were conducted

Participatory methodologies are frequently used in social research and have matured over the past decades. Ethical aspects of participatory research feature in retrospective accounts of partnerships that contribute to quality research, and those that were problematic to negotiate in the research partnership. Meanwhile, social researchers have shared concerns about meaningful transformations from research and the processes involved to achieve effective, responsive partnerships. As participatory methodologies have matured, so has an ethics of care.

The association between the socio-demographic characteristics of caregivers, such as gender and caregiver burden, is well documented; however, the process underlying this relationship is poorly understood. Based on the stress process model, we designed a cross-sectional study to examine the mediating and moderating effect of resilience on the relationship between gender and caregiver burden. Caregivers of individuals with severe mental illness (n = 201) were recruited in two psychiatric outpatient clinics in Malaysia.

Aims and objectives: To explore the experiences of female spousal caregivers in the care of husbands with severe mental illness. Background: Family involvement in the care of patients with chronic illness is essential to provide a backbone of support for them. However, little is known about how female spousal caregivers are confronted with challenges while taking care of their husbands with severe mental illness. Design: An exploratory qualitative study.

Objectives: To prospectively investigate the impact of transitions in informal caregiving on emotional well-being over two years in a large population study of older people. Methods: Information on provision of unpaid care in 2004/2005 and 2006/2007 was available for 6571 participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

Background: Disability following a stroke often requires family, commonly a spouse, to provide care enabling the stroke survivor to return home. Immediate or extended family and friends may help provide direct care or support the primary caregiver. While family members share the common stroke experience, this is lived within the context of separate lives. Research examining the individual nuances, roles and contribution of family and/or friends forming part of collective stroke networks, has largely been overlooked.

Background: The experience of caring for a family member with cancer is associated with several care‐related problems and challenges for the caregiver. The comprehensive and in‐depth understanding of the trials and tribulations of caregiving can be a step towards resolving the problems faced by family caregivers of these patients. Aim: The present study aimed to explore challenges faced by Iranian family caregivers of cancer patients.