English

Little research has examined how, or if, involuntary commitment has impacted on the burden experienced by the family. This paper reports a qualitative study which explored how involuntary commitment under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 2000 in Queensland, Australia impacted on families of people with mental illness. Family members of a person with a mental illness, under involuntary commitment at the time or in the previous 12 months, participated in focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to determine the themes.

Background. Despite decades of research showing high rates of unmet need in older people, there currently is little understanding of why these needs remain unmet. This study was performed as part of a larger feasibility study of a multidisciplinary needs assessment tool in primary care.

Objective. The aim of the present study was to explore patients' and carers' help-seeking behaviour and perceived barriers to meeting unmet needs.

Purpose. To expand understanding of informal stroke care-giving, validated tools previously used in Hong Kong and in the UK were used with Australian stroke carers to assess their stroke-related knowledge, perceived needs, satisfaction with services received and sense of burden after stroke patients' discharge home from acute hospital care.

Methods. Record audit and telephone interviews with two cohorts of 32 carers recruited in Sydney and Brisbane 1 and 3 months post-hospital discharge, using validated scales and open questions in May–July 2006.

One of the key objectives of the community care reforms of 1990 in the United Kingdom was the development of a flourishing independent sector alongside good quality public services. The aims of the reforms were to increase the available range of options, widen consumer choice and promote independence. The purpose of the study reported here was to examine – from the perspective of older service users, their carers and care managers – experiences at the operational level of arranging, delivering and receiving care services.

Introduction: Informal caregivers needs in cancer/advanced disease are largely unmet. The science of carer intervention evaluation is methodologically challenging, and the evidence historically weak.

Objective: This systematic review updates an earlier effectiveness review to determine both the effectiveness of subsequently published intervention studies, and the current state of science.

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study that examined how qualified district nurses’ conceptualized their role in relation to family carers and how they performed this aspect of their role.

A participant observational study involving fieldwork and in-depth interviews with six district nursing teams was undertaken over a 12-month period. Interview transcripts and fieldnotes were analysed by drawing upon the principles of dimensional analysis.

Drawing on carer narratives from research undertaken in New Zealand, this paper considers the interrelationship between place and the care-giving experience. In doing so, it considers: first, how informal carers of older people experience the transition in the place of care from the home to care homes; second, how they negotiate new identities for themselves as carers in these new care settings; and third, carers' views on how we might develop more inclusive models of care in care home settings.

This paper presents verification data for a multimedia software application intended to enhance carers' ability to respond to everyday difficulties and emergency situations. The program provides educational information about first aid, how to deal with everyday problems and a number of emergency situations such as bleeding, falling and choking. An evaluation plan was developed, including instruments for measuring and assessing usability.

Little is known about the dyadic experience over time of people with dementia and their next of kin. The aim of this study was to investigate the state of mind of people with dementia, their next of kin’s experience of burden and satisfaction, and factors associated with these experiences over a 3-year period. The sample consisted of 32 people with dementia living at home with family caregivers in the south of Sweden.