Journal article

Introduction: Family and friends of seriously ill patients are key partners in providing support and health care at home, managing relationships with clinicians, and navigating complex health care systems. Becoming a knowledgeable, confident, and effective caregiver is a developmental process we term 'caregiver activation' and could be facilitated by clinicians equipped with suitable tools. Managing Your Loved One’s Health (MYLOH) is a new tool to identify gaps in caregivers' knowledge, skills, and access to clinical and personal support.

The number of older adults is projected to grow significantly by 2050. Predictions also suggest that living longer but not healthier lives will increase the demand for family caregivers as well. Regrettably, caregivers in comparison with noncaregivers will likely continue to experience higher levels of stress, poorer health, and increased propensity for using unhealthy behaviors to address their stress.

The number of people with chronic illness who need home‐based care is increasing globally. Home‐based care is socially constructed to be work carried out by women. However, little attention has been paid to the opinions of middle‐aged women caring for family members with chronic illness at home. In this study, Thai women's perspectives on home‐based care for family members with chronic illness using interpretive phenomenology were identified. Fifteen middle‐aged women were interviewed twice, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Despite the abundance of randomized clinical trial interventions for family caregivers (FCs) who look after persons with dementia, the extent to which these findings can be effectively implemented in a real‐world clinical setting is questionable. Indeed, a prompt and practical support programme for real clinical settings would benefit FCs, especially given the long hours

This article considers the future of informal care situations, with a special focus on how social networks can support caring. Noting demographic changes and the endemic need for informal support, we outline the convoy model of social relations for proactive planning and contemporaneous caring. The article is grounded in empirical evidence, including comparative findings from four countries and about caring among two uniquely vulnerable populations: latelife remarried couples and lesbian and gay adults.

Although research shows that most parents and adult children report generally positive and supportive ties, there is also evidence that negative interactions and emotions are common in intergenerational relationships. To investigate this complexity, researchers have moved beyond simple models to orientations and approaches that recognise contradictory emotions and attitudes regarding family relationships in later life. These efforts have given rise to what has come to be termed the 'intergenerational ambivalence' perspective.

Different perspectives on dementia, held by people with dementia, carers and professionals working in helping service industries, were examined in 111 interviews across Australia in 2017 to add a recipients' view on what public health campaigning should address. Contrasts were found between the priorities of the different perspectives, plus a common feeling that dementia should become a normal part of social life. Rather than reflecting stigmatising behaviour, all groups expressed a need for knowledge on how to communicate and interact with people with dementia.

We investigated family caring using established questions from national surveys of 1,206 adults aged 40+ from six minority ethnic communities in England and Wales. We included in our analysis factors that predisposed caring (age, sex, marital status and household composition) and enabled caring (health, material resources, education, employment and cultural values). In the general population, 15% of adults are family carers.

This article illustrates the implications of two recent trends on family carers' health: the employment of home-based migrant care workers; and the provision of web-based supports. The main factors traditionally associated with carers' health are used to analyse the results of a six-country study via a multilevel linear regression. Attention will be dedicated to the role of migrant care workers, who are often hired by private households to provide eldercare.

In 2012, it was estimated that more than 5.6 million Canadian employees (35% of the workforce) had adult/elder care responsibilities (Fast et al, 2014). Lack of workplace support leads to consequences such as: carer-employees leaving the workforce/missing work; premature retirement; reduced productivity; health problems; and increased costs to employers (Peters and Wilson, 2017). In 2016, a partnership of committed stakeholders set out to develop a bilingual Canadian Caregiver-Friendly Workplace Standard and Implementation Guide.