English

New bill to improve support for UK informal carers. The proposed Carers (Identification and Support) Bill is summarised and responses from charities and other organisations are discussed. [BNI unique abstract]

During National Learning Disability Week, Mencap launched its Breaking Point campaign to get more short breaks for family carers. Mencap's survey showed that 6 out of 10 carers of people with severe or profound learning disabilities surveyed by Mencap were getting no short break service. Many local authorities do not see these families as a priority. Mencap wants spending in this area to be closely checked. As part of a campaign, people emailed their MP. So far, more than 1,000 people have emailed their MP. [Journal abstract]

AIM: To find out the reasons why carers might decide that they could not continue caring for a relative with dementia at home. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews with carers of relatives who have dementia, before placing their relatives into residential care and then again four months after that placement. N=4. RESULTS: Wandering, aggression, incontinence and physical dependency in people who have dementia are factors that might lead carers to consider placing their relatives into residential care; stress associated with Christmas can be another influencing factor.

The aim of this report is to provide a scoping review of evaluation studies of interventions and serv ices to support carers of people with m ental health problem s, to discuss issues relating to the effectiveness and cost - effectiveness of interventions, and to provide insights into areas where there are gaps in knowledge. The report is accom panied by a second report, the Consultation Report, that docum ents a consultation exercise held with key stakeholders, including ‘key informant’ carers.

Informal carers make a vital contribution to the well-being of the people they care for or look after. Against the policy background in England, the purpose of this study was to explore the views of carers who are in contact with adult social care support services. A qualitative study with 31 carers, who were recruited via local authorities and carers' organisations, was conducted between April and July 2012 to collect data on carers' experiences and perceptions of their quality of life (QoL) with and without adult social care and support for themselves or the person they look after.

There are 500,000 Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) carers in England. This report shows that BAME carers provide more care than average. They face additional difficulties as they care, struggling with language barriers, accessing culturally appropriate services and with stereotyping around caring. This puts them at greater risk of ill health, poverty, loss of employment and social exclusion. The report analyses existing provisions and sets clear recommendations for local authorities, health and well being boards, primary care trusts and GP consortia to improve services.

Objective: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is often used to screen for cancer caregivers' anxiety and depression, despite few studies examining the tool's psychometric performance within this population. The purpose of this article is to use Rasch analysis to assess the psychometric properties of the HADS in a sample of cancer caregivers.

Methods: HADS was administered to 541 caregivers of a population-based sample of patients diagnosed with one of the eight most incident cancers in Australia. Rasch analysis was conducted using RUMM2020.

A review of the literature highlights the important role informal carers play in the provision of palliative care in the community. In order to explore the caring experience of relatives with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), interviews were conducted with 26 informal family caregivers. Interviews were taped, transcribed and subjected to content analysis. All caregivers were spouses, the majority female (n = 17) and all were responsible for providing physical, social and emotional care in the home.

This paper reviews recent research on care-giver networks and the concepts and approach that they apply, with particular reference to the support networks of the primary care-givers of older people with Alzheimer's disease. It makes the case for an integrated approach to the explanation of the various combinations of formal and informal support that are found. It argues that more attention needs to be given to transformations in care-giver networks over time, and that this will require more development of both theoretical perspectives and analytical tools.