Jour

It is important to find out which services benefit people with dementia and their carers most: in particular whether carers gain more support from respite care and short breaks or from other services. Hilary Arksey and Helen Weatherly review the research evidence to date and comment on its limitations, given the wide range of different services covered.

Background: Many men diagnosed with mental health problems are also fathers. This literature review addresses issues relating to both the fathering role taken on by men who have mental health problems as well as the impact of their mental health on their children. Material: An integrative review of the literature was conducted from studies originating in four countries, resulting in an analysis of 31 journal articles. Discussion and conclusions: Most of the quantitative literature focuses on the many risks and negative outcomes for children.

When faced with changes in physical health, cognition, and daily functioning, older adults most frequently rely on family members for instrumental support and more intense care activities. Using a life span perspective as our guiding framework, we identified several developmental themes across the late-life caregiving research including individual well-being, relational effects, and caregiver growth.

This article uses recent research and practice guidance to explore the implications of the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 for professionals who work with carers of working age.

Following its development and evaluation in Western Australia, local area co‐ordination (LAC) has been included as an integral part of the strategy for people with learning disabilities in Scotland. LAC responds to the wishes of people with learning disabilities and family carers for more direct access to services and for continuity and co‐ordination of support. Local area co‐ordinators (LACs) work directly with individuals and families to help them find the information and local supports they need.

On the 1st of April 1999 Somerset Health Authority and Somerset County Council established a Joint Commissioning Board (JCB) to commission mental health services. Simultaneously, the Somerset Partnerships Health and Social Care NHS Trust was set-up as a combined health and social care services provider; for the first time in England, the majority of social services mental health staff transferred their employment to this Trust. The JCB commissioned an evaluation of the impact of these innovations on users and carers, staff and senior officers and members in the organisations concerned.

The authors reflect on the importance of learning and development for transforming dementia and end-of-life care. Topics discussed include dependency of quality of dementia care on care providers including registered practitioners, support staff and informal carers, focus on person-centred care and building the leadership skills and confidence to influence care given by diverse and multiprofessional team.

Discusses the concept of social exclusion in relation to carers and asks why it has taken so long to link carers with the social exclusion agenda.

The present paper examines the importance of risk when supporting individuals with learning disabilities. It uses data from a small research project designed to examine the perceptions of risk held by users, carers and professionals, as well as the risk policies of agencies. Risk is an important issue in the provision of support. The service users in the present study saw risk primarily in terms of hazards. The carers were concerned about hazards and harm, but recognized the need for risk-taking. The professionals emphasized the importance of reasonable risk-taking.

This paper reports on some of the findings from a collaborative study funded by the Big Lottery and led by Crossroads Caring for Carers about carers for people with mental health problems. The protection and use of information in mental health are firmly rooted in ethics and professional codes, law and policy, as well as values and professional practice. While government initiatives have attempted to augment the role and rights of carers, policy guidance involving information sharing between professionals and carers has failed to deal with the practical dilemmas of patient confidentiality.