Leam, C.

Caring for someone with an advanced illness has been shown to be stressful. There are few interventions aimed at supporting informal carers. To develop a group intervention that responds to carers’ needs for information and support and to describe its initial activity and response. The group runs from two palliative care services in North and South London. Ten to twelve carers are invited to attend the group that runs over 6 weeks, for 90 min a week. Facilitated by social workers, the content of the sessions is multi-professional.

Although palliative care aims to support family members and informal carers, current evidence suggests that high levels of unmet need persist, and that this population is challenging to work with. This study aimed to 1) measure the proportion of patients that have an informal carer, 2) describe the clinical notes data on existing needs and coping, 3) measure the completeness of assessment data recording, 4) appraise the utility of existing informal carers’ sections in the patient files, and 5) make recommendations for improvement. An audit was conducted reviewing 145 closed patient files.

Despite evidence of high psychological distress and unmet needs, evaluated interventions for informal caregivers in palliative care are few. This study involved an observational outcome evaluation of attendees, and a comparison group, in specialist home palliative care. The measures included carer psychological status and patient physical status at baseline, 8 weeks, and 20 weeks. Qualitative data were collected regarding content, satisfaction with, and impact of intervention. Process data described the uptake, resources, and group activity.