Journal article

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a leading cause of hospitalizations. Interventional studies focusing on the hospital-to-home transition for COPD patients are few.

Despite a significant growth in the number older former family carers, they remain largely invisible in carer-related research and literature. To begin to address this deficit, a four-stage literature review was conducted to identify existing knowledge about older former carers. Narrative synthesis of the findings yielded five themes - the concept of 'older former carer', the legacies of caring, influences on the legacies of caring, conceptualising post-caring and support services for older former carers.

The reality for many families where there is chronic illness, mental health problems, disability, alcohol or substance misuse is that children under the age of 18 are involved in caring. Many of these children - known as 'young carers' - will be providing regular and significant care, either episodically or over many years, often 'hidden' to health, social care and other welfare professionals and services. These children have most often been invisible in social policy and professional practice.

An integrative review was conducted to evaluate and synthesize the current state of knowledge of family carers’ experiences of emergency psychiatric crises of an adult relative. A literature review was performed by searching key terms in EBSCO (CINAHL, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Social Work Abstracts), and Proquest (MEDLINE, PsycINFO) citation databases; 3,350 citations were retrieved and screened for inclusion.

Background: Prevalence of stroke and traditional filial responsibility involve adult children in caregiving to their parent stroke survivors in China. Support resources are insufficient because of the shrinking size of family and the underdeveloped support system. Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify the correlates of perceived social support among adult child caregivers of parent stroke survivors in China. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was used in this study.

Background: A key challenge in meeting the palliative care needs of people in advanced age is the multiple healthcare and social service agencies typically involved in their care. The 'patient navigator' model, originally developed in cancer care, is the professional solution most often recommended to address this challenge. However, little attention has been paid, or is known, about the role that family carers play in enabling their dying relatives to negotiate service gaps.

Objectives: To examine the effects of a telephone-delivered intervention, Family Intervention: Telephone Tracking-Caregiver (FITT-C), on community support and healthcare use by dementia caregivers.; Design: Randomized, controlled trial.; Setting: Academic medical center.; Participants: Dyads (n = 250) of distressed informal dementia caregivers and care recipients.; Intervention: Caregivers were randomly assigned to receive the FITT-C (n = 133) or telephone support (TS; n = 117).

Background: Internationally, evidence on the support needs of family carers who look after a terminally ill adult in home settings is incomplete. Aim: To illustrate the relevance of 'relevant background worries' in family carers' accounts of caring at home for a dying adult. Design: A qualitative cross-sectional observational study was conducted in England, United Kingdom, in 2011-2013 on the experiences of adult family carers (n = 59) of older dying adults (aged 50+ years) with malignant and/or non-malignant conditions.

Objectives: The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) was developed to advance participants' self-care of chronic illness and may be offered to both individuals with chronic conditions and their caregivers. Previous studies of CDSMP have identified multiple resulting health benefits for participants as well as factors associated with participants' completion rates.