Article

Offers details about a little-known federal program aimed at helping individuals who provide long-term care for aged relatives or loved ones called the National Family Caregiver Support Program.

Susan Philpin and colleagues explore residents’ eating and drinking experiences to help nurses better meet the dietary needs of older people in other settings

Aim To investigate factors that influenced nutritional care provided in two different types of residential care settings.

Emphasis on support for informal carers focuses on those who provide, in the words of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, 'substantial' and 'regular' care. Following research and policy, professional education has also developed interest in those who live with the people they support, such as co-resident spouses and children of all ages. This article considers those who probably do not define themselves as carers and are usually referred to as 'relatives' or 'family', living at a distance from an older relative.

Background: Young people below the age of 18, whose lives are affected by looking after a relative with a disability or long-term illness, are called young carers. Evidence based family oriented support for young carers and their families in Germany is currently being developed. To allow for scientific evaluation, an outcome criterion needs to be chosen. Until today, there are no assessment instruments available, which focus on young carer's specific demands and needs.

Adult's decision to care for aging family members has an aggregate effect on public income support programs as well on as health care services and costs. Families have continuously been the primary source of support and care of elderly members. It is estimated that adult children constitute 41.3% of all informal caregivers (Wolff & Kasper, 2006). However, recent demographic trends have changed the landscape of parental caregiving by placing unprecedented levels of competing demands for care, potentially limiting the availability of adult children to provide parental care.

Objectives: To explore the attitudes of older people towards home as a place of care when dying. Design: A two-phase qualitative study using focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Participants: Eight focus group discussions were held with 32 participants recruited from six purposively selected community groups representing older people in Sheffield, UK. A further 16 men and 29 women participated in semi-structured interviews. Results: Participants identified that home was more than a physical location, representing familiarity, comfort and the presence of loved ones.

The purpose of this study of mid-life and older women was to assess the relation between informal care provision and depressive symptoms, taking into account concurrent demands on women's time (including multiple caregiving roles and employment outside the home) as well as participants’ access to potentially supportive social ties.

A questionnaire survey was undertaken in a rural health locality to examine the delivery of dental/oral health care to service users. Results indicate general satisfaction wth dental services, with attendance rates for treatment similar to the general population. However, the majority of clients not receiving dental checks in the previous year lived in formal care settings, suggesting standards were no higher in professional care contexts.