Monitoring the formal and informal carers' stress in the Alzheimer Special Care Units: Methodology and results

The care process of the person with dementia takes place within the so called "social triangle" formed by the person, family members, professional carers. One of the main objectives in dementia care is to build up a therapeutic alliance aimed at promoting the well vbeing of the persons suffering for dementia and their carers. The placement of the person with dementia doesn't always meens the end of the burden of care for family members, who typically continue their caregiving activities after instituzionalzation. The pourpose of the work was to better understand the stress of the unformal caregivers, during the placement, and to know the main stress predictors among the staff working in the Special Care Units for Alzheimer Disease and related disorders. For the family we found a correlation between stress and: being femele, being spouse, taking care of people with an erliar age of onset, low education, cohabitation with the person with dementia. For the staff we found an opposite correlation between stress and years of work: for more years of work lower stress levels. The physical space in which the person with dementia lives and the staff works, was related to stress for both unformal and formal carers. The appraisal of their own work was much better for people working in Special Care Units when compared with people working in long-stay wards.