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This article describes the development of a new service for people with dementia and their carers in a large post-industrial city in the north of England, UK. The service arose in response to the perceived inadequacies of existing respite care provision and has proved very successful in meeting the needs of people with dementia and their family carers, and in providing high levels of job satisfaction for staff. The success of the initiative can be understood using the Senses Framework and relationship-centred care as an analytic lens to identify key attributes of the service.

The increased presence and participation in Australian society of people with an intellectual disability provides challenges for the provision of primary health care. General practitioners (GPs) identify themselves as ill equipped to provide for this heterogeneous population. A major obstacle to the provision of appropriate health care is seen as inadequate communication between the GP and the person with an intellectual disability, who may or may not be accompanied by a carer or advocate.

AIMS AND METHOD Despite good evidence for their effectiveness in the treatment of schizophrenia, family interventions are difficult to implement. Prior to a local trust-wide programme to encourage their use, we carried out a case note review of family contact with clients and staff of community mental health teams (CMHTs). A 10% sample of CMHT clients was included.

AIMS AND METHOD The National Health Service Plan stated that all correspondence between clinicians would be copied to patients by April 2004. We wanted to find out whether this practice reflected the true desires of their patients. A questionnaire survey was therefore performed in older adults and their carers attending a psychiatric out-patient clinic.

It is frequently asserted that the views of patients or service users should inform the structure and delivery of health and social care services. In the UK, patient participation, the expertise of service users and user involvement in the design and outcomes of research have been repeatedly emphasized as producing services which are more responsive, better coordinated and less stigmatizing. The NHS has highlighted the importance of involving service users in education and training. This article reports on user and carer views about learning disability nursing.

Background  The aim of this paper is to investigate the role parents are playing in direct payments provision for their son or daughter with intellectual disabilities.

Objective: By means of a controlled trial, to investigate the efficacy, tolerability and feasibility of a multi-component sleep therapy intervention versus basic sleep hygiene education in PD patients with sleep disturbances and their live-in carers.

Methods: Patient-carer dyads were randomised to either of the two interventions. Quantitative measures of sleep, psychiatric and overall functioning were administered at baseline and two weeks after the intervention to patients and carers.

Background: The prevention of suicide is a key aim for health care authorities and society in general and family members have a principal role in caring for suicidal people. However, the support needs of these essential family carers are relatively unknown. Aim: To explore the support needs of family members of suicidal people. Method: Eighteen participants were interviewed using a short topic guide. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis and confirmed by discussion. Findings: Family members of suicidal people have unmet needs (this was the main theme).

Objectives: To explore the perceptions of family carers, older people and health professionals in Australia about what constitutes elder abuse.

Methods: The Caregiving Scenario Questionnaire (CSQ) was disseminated to health professionals from two metropolitan hospitals, older volunteers and carers of older people with dementia recruited for other studies.

Carers play an essential role in the lives of people suffering from mental health problems. Caring is very often a relational activity carried out by family members. Assertive Outreach (AO) services ought to be particularly well placed to support carers, but their impact upon families is not well understood. We set out to understand the intervention of AO services from a family perspective, and in particular to explore its meaning from the perspectives of pairs of carers. Three pairs of carer-parents participated in six individual open-ended interviews.