English

Book Description: Little is known about the experiences of children living in families affected by severe and enduring mental illness. This is the first in-depth study of children and young people caring for parents affected in this way. Drawing on primary research data collected from 40 families, the book presents the perspectives of children (young carers), their parents and the key professionals in contact with them.

The study aims to give an understanding of the perspectives of younger people with dementia and their carers and to make recommendations on future service delivery, policy development and practice. The report begins with an extensive literature review, followed by details of the study methodology. In-depth interviews with six sufferers and six carers were undertaken. The findings are reported with liberal use of quotations from the study participants to ensure the voice of sufferers and carers is heard. Sufferers' perceptions of their world are given prominence.

Objective: To describe measures used to evaluate the burden of caregiving experienced by caregivers of stroke patients and their clinimetric properties. Design: A review of the literature was conducted to examine burden scales with regard to concept, feasibility, internal consistency, validity, reliability and responsiveness. Results: The literature search resulted in 45 measures of caregiver outcomes, including 16 different measures of caregiver burden. About half of the scales were used only once and were not further described.

New coping programme alleviates depression and does it cost effectively. 

Little attention has been paid to the immense struggles facing disabled people and their caregivers as they try to plan their long-term futures. This book sets out practical ways to maximise future care options for such community care user groups. It focuses on the priorities of older caregivers and people with learning disabilities to give numerous suggestions for increasing control people have over their affairs and links these to central legislation and entitlement issues.

Aims and objectives.  The purpose of this article is to describe the problem-solving abilities of Hong Kong family carers looking after a stroke patients at home and report the relationships between their perceived problem-solving abilities with their depression level, general health status, and the functional recovery of stroke patients.

Carers have an enormous amount of responsibility for the welfare and management of people with a mental illness in Britain, and many require help if they are to continue caring. Mental health nurses may be in a key position to offer support, but they are often unclear of what is required and how it should be delivered. Existing UK nurse-led psychosocial interventions for families often focus on the needs of the patient rather than the carer. This article describes a needs-led support service that has been designed for carers whose relatives are diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Despite its familiarity, the realities of care are both complex and contested. This book offers a unique approach to scrutinising the co-existence of both care and abuse in relationships. It demonstrates ways of increasing critical reflexivity when working with people involved in difficult care relationships. The book emphasises that when talking about care, we need to care about talk. Discourse analysis is introduced as a method of investigating relationships, policy and literature in informal care.

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disorder that can have a severe effect on the quality of life of individuals with the condition, and can place considerable strain on informal carers and healthcare systems. Research is required to identify ways to prevent or delay the onset of dementia. The government is committed to dementia research, yet funding for dementia research is eclipsed by funding for research into other conditions. Moreover, dementia research can only progress if individuals with the condition participate in research studies.

There is currently much policy emphasis on both partnership working between health and social services in the UK and on the outcomes delivered by services. This article provides an account of two consecutive projects centred on these two themes. The first project, at the University of Glasgow, sought to address the lack of evidence about the outcomes delivered to service users by partnerships.