Schoenmakers, Birgitte

Frail, older care recipients are often thought of as individuals with a decreased mastery of everyday life skills. Various authors have proposed to acknowledge a relational dimension of mastery, defined as the ability to maintain control over one's life with the help of others. This study explores how frail, older adults experience relational aspects of mastery and the role of their informal caregivers in maintaining these aspects of mastery over the care process.

Little is known about the dynamics of a group of people giving informal care together. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of an informal care group, the obstacles the informal care group experiences, the needs and desires they have and how the informal care group can be supported by general practitioners (GPs) and other professionals. Nine informal care groups were interviewed based on a questionnaire that was preapproved by the six Flemish official informal caregiver organisations. The results were analysed using open coding.

Despite the abundance of studies concerning caring for patients with cancer, less is known about caring for an older cancer survivor (≥65 years). We aimed to systematically gather literature about the psychosocial well-being of caregivers of older cancer survivors and to identify possible risk factors for developing psychosocial problems. Fourteen articles met the following inclusion criteria: articles about (a) cancer, (b) informal caregivers, (c) older survivors and a (d) curative setting. After critical appraisal, nearly all were considered to be of moderate-to-strong quality.