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Terminally ill

Associations of preloss and postloss factors with severe depressive symptoms and quality of life over the first 2 years of bereavement for family caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients

Background: Family caregivers carry heavy end-of-life (EOL) caregiving burdens, with their physical and psychological well-being threatened from caregiving to bereavement. However, caregiving burden has rarely been examined as a risk factor for bereavement adjustment to disentangle the wear-and-tear vs relief models of bereavement.

Sun, 01/12/2020 - 17:48

333 A Transnational Effectiveness-Implementation Study of the Family Carer Decision Support Intervention to Improve End of Life Care in Long-Term Care

Background The Family Carer Decision Support (FCDS) intervention has been designed to inform family carers about end of life care options available to a person living with advanced dementia. The FCDS intervention demonstrated a statistically significant impact in reducing family carer decision uncertainty on establishing goals of care at the end of life and, improved family carer satisfaction on quality of care in a study conducted in the United Kingdom.

Wed, 12/18/2019 - 13:08

Caregiver characteristics and bereavement needs: findings from a population study

Background: Globally, most care for people with life-limiting illnesses is provided by informal caregivers. Identifying characteristics of caregivers that may have unmet needs and negative outcomes can help provide better support to facilitate adjustment. Aim: The authors compared characteristics, expressed unmet needs and outcomes for spousal caregivers, with other caregivers at the end of life, by gender and age.

Wed, 04/10/2019 - 12:32

Living With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Near the End of Life: Family Caregivers' Perspectives

Purpose/Objectives: To explore family caregivers’ perspectives of caring for patients with terminal hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as patients approached the end of life. Research Approach: Longitudinal, qualitative descriptive design. Setting: Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System in Oregon. Participants: 13 family caregivers with a mean age of 56 years (range = 22–68 years). The majority of family caregivers were female (n = 10) and identified as White (n = 11).

Mon, 03/11/2019 - 12:59

Life of the Second-Order Patient: Factors Impacting the Informal Caregiver

Informal caregivers (ICs) are forced to make adaptive lifestyle changes to meet the significant demand of caring for loved ones who are terminally ill. Open-ended questions were administered with 26 ICs who cared for loved ones diagnosed with terminal illnesses whose prognosis was less than six months. The results add substantive information to parsimonious literature and demonstrate a correlation with existing studies that coincide with the debilitating effects that caregiving has on the informal carer.

Wed, 02/06/2019 - 09:34

Longitudinal Changes in and Modifiable Predictors of the Prevalence of Severe Depressive Symptoms for Family Caregivers of Terminally Ill Cancer Patients over the First Two Years of Bereavement

Background: Bereaved families endure tremendous grief. However, few studies have longitudinally investigated caregivers' bereavement grief for more than one year postloss and none is from family-oriented Asian countries. Objectives: We explored longitudinal changes in and modifiable predictors of severe depressive symptoms for Taiwanese family caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients over the first two years postloss.

Wed, 10/24/2018 - 10:07

Recommendations from the Salzburg Global Seminar on Rethinking Care Toward the End of Life

Objective: In December 2016, 66 health leaders from 14 countries convened at the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) to engage in cross-cultural and collaborative discussions centered on 'Rethinking Care Toward the End of Life'. Conversations focused on global perspectives on death and dying, challenges experienced by researchers, physicians, patients and family caregivers. This paper summarizes key findings and recommendations from SGS.

Thu, 08/30/2018 - 10:37

Preloss grief in family caregivers during end-of-life cancer care: A nationwide population-based cohort study

Objective: Severe grief symptoms in family caregivers during end-of-life cancer trajectories are associated with complicated grief and depression after the loss. Nevertheless, severe grief symptoms during end-of-life caregiving in caregivers to cancer patients have been scarcely studied.

Wed, 08/22/2018 - 10:17

How family caregivers help older relatives navigate statutory services at the end of life: A descriptive qualitative study

Background: A key challenge in meeting the palliative care needs of people in advanced age is the multiple healthcare and social service agencies typically involved in their care. The 'patient navigator' model, originally developed in cancer care, is the professional solution most often recommended to address this challenge. However, little attention has been paid, or is known, about the role that family carers play in enabling their dying relatives to negotiate service gaps.

Thu, 07/05/2018 - 12:51

The experiences of caregivers of patients with delirium, and their role in its management in palliative care settings: an integrative literature review

Objectives: To explore the experiences of caregivers of terminally ill patients with delirium, to determine the potential role of caregivers in the management of delirium at the end of life, to identify the support required to improve caregiver experience and to help the caregiver support the patient. Methods: Four electronic databases were searched-PsychInfo, Medline, Cinahl and Scopus from January 2000 to July 2015 using the terms 'delirium', 'terminal restlessness' or 'agitated restlessness' combined with 'carer' or 'caregiver' or 'family' or 'families'.

Wed, 06/06/2018 - 11:52

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