Reblin, Maija

Objectives: Identify 2-4 factors sociodemographic, caregiving, or economic factors associated with cancer caregivers' mental health outcomes during hospice. Evaluate how financial well-being affects the mental health of cancer caregivers and discuss implications for policy and practice. Background: End-of-life caregiving is associated with poorer mental health which may impact bereavement. Research Objectives To examine the sociodemographic, caregiving, and economic characteristics of mental health among hospice family caregivers of cancer patients.

Background: Effective social support mitigates burden and distress experienced by cancer caregivers. Little research, however, investigates informal support within social networks of family caregivers of cancer home hospice patients, and how social stress may accompany this support. Research Objectives: We assessed patterns of support and stress within the social networks identified by family caregivers of cancer home hospice patients (N=90). Methods: We analyzed secondary data from a longitudinal multi-site study.

Background: Informal family caregivers constitute an important and increasingly demanding role in the cancer healthcare system. This is especially true for caregivers of patients with primary malignant brain tumors based on the rapid progression of disease, including physical and cognitive debilitation. Informal social network resources such as friends and family can provide social support to caregivers, which lowers caregiver burden and improves overall quality of life. However, barriers to obtaining needed social support exist for caregivers.

Objective: Informal family caregivers provide critical support for patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T‐cell therapy. However, caregivers' experiences are largely unstudied. This study examined quality of life (QOL; physical functioning, pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression), caregiving burden, and treatment‐related distress in caregivers in the first 6 months after CAR T‐cell therapy, when caregivers were expected to be most involved in providing care. Relationships between patients' clinical course and caregiver outcomes were also explored.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for many cancer survivors and their caregivers to access support from providers and informal networks. This may be particularly true for LGBTQ+ groups, who are under-represented in oncology and palliative care research and often overlooked in clinical oncology and palliative care. Research Objectives: We sought to better understand how the pandemic is affecting LGBTQ+ cancer survivors' and caregivers' access to and perceptions of formal and informal support.

Background: Advanced cancer affects the emotional and physical well-being of both patients and family caregivers in profound ways and is experienced both dyadically and individually. Dyadic interventions address the concerns of both members of the dyad. A critical gap exists in advanced cancer research, which is a failure of goals research and dyadic research to fully account for the reciprocal and synergistic effects of patients’ and caregivers’ individual perspectives, and those they share.

Objectives: 1. Analyze 1-4 aspects of bereavement that have been impacted by COVID-19 for family caregivers of advanced cancer hospice patients. 2. Evaluate the strategies implemented by family caregivers to overcome isolation and maintain connectedness during the Coronavirus pandemic. Background: As Coronavirus has spread to the US, it has changed family caregivers' hospice experiences including bereavement.

Objectives Describe the psychosocial impact of being a cancer survivor caring for a spouse with an advanced cancer diagnosis. Compare the psychosocial outcomes of those experiencing dual roles of cancer survivor and cancer family caregiver. Importance. As early detection and treatment improves, more people become cancer survivors, making it increasingly common that survivors eventually care for a spouse also diagnosed with cancer. Understanding these relationships is crucial to understanding patient-caregiver dynamics. Objective(s).

Objective: Hospice interdisciplinary team (IDT) providers' attitudes toward sexual and gender minority (SGM) patients and family caregivers impacts quality of care and end-of-life outcomes. This study assessed hospice IDT provider attitudes toward SGM patients and caregivers and identified demographic predictors.; Methods: Hospice IDT providers (N = 122) completed an adapted 11-item scale measuring attitudes toward SGM hospice patients and caregivers.

Objectives: • Describe the implications of emotional processing of stressful events for hospice family caregivers. • Interpret preliminary findings from textual data analysis of hospice family caregiver diaries.  Importance: Evidence suggests that meaning-making and emotional processing can improve home hospice family caregivers' (HFCs) well-being.