Supporting family caregivers: teaching essential skills to family caregivers

Nurses can use 'teachable moments' to help the transition from hospital to home care.     

Health-promoting self-care in family caregivers

Caregiving for family members with cognitive impairment is stressful and time consuming. Because of the attention needed to manage the memory and behavior problems of the care receiver, family caregivers have little time to attend to their own health needs. Most research related to the health of family caregivers has been conducted within a stress-illness framework. Fewer researchers have studied caregiver health from a health-promotion paradigm. The purpose of this study was to compare health-promoting self-care behavior infamily caregivers with demographically matched noncaregivers and to investigate the mediational effect of health-promoting self-care behavior on the relationship between stress and well-being. Findings revealed that family caregivers scored significantly lower on all measures of health promotion, with the exception of Nutrition and Number of Medications, and significantly higher on Barriers to Health-Promoting Actions. Health-promoting self-care behavior acted as a mediator to reduce the effect of caregiver stress on general well-being.     

Respite--a coping strategy for family caregivers

The caregiver respite experience is seen as one way to moderate the negative consequences of caregiving. From an interpretivist research orientation, this study explored how 10 family caregivers of persons with dementia experienced respite. From a coping theoretical perspective, the caregiver respite experience is discussed as a process of "getting out" of the caregiver world, and is linked to avoidance strategies of emotion-focused coping. The following three phases within the coping dimension of the respite experience were found: caregivers recognizing their need to get out of the caregiver world, giving themselves permission to actually get out from it temporarily, and having the appropriate social support resources available to facilitate the getting out. The critical practice and research implications linked to caregivers' ability to acknowledge their need for respite are described.     

Fatigue affecting family caregivers of cancer patients

Fatigue, a universally reported symptom, may be one of the most prevalent feelings of people suffering physical or mental diseases. An understanding of the factors leading to fatigue in the caregiving population can contribute to better care and support of both the cancer patient and caregiver. The purpose of this article is to investigate and describe the experience of fatigue among caregivers of cancer patients, in relation to caregiver age, employment status, number of hours of care provided daily, duration of caregiving, and the impact upon the caregiver's schedule. A sample of 248 caregivers of cancer patients, participating in the Family Homecare Cancer Study, were surveyed regarding fatigue related to their caregiving roles. No relationship was found between severity of fatigue experienced by the caregiver of the cancer patient and caregiver age, employment status, the number of hours of daily caregiving, or the duration of caregiving. However, a significant relationship was found between fatigue and the impact of care on the daily schedule. This finding has strong implications for the oncology nurse, because the more the caregiver's schedule is a burden, the greater will be the fatigue experienced.     

Fatigue affecting family caregivers of cancer patients

Fatigue, a universally reported symptom, may be one of the most prevalent feelings of people suffering from physical or mental diseases. An understanding of the factors leading to fatigue in the caregiving population can contribute to better care and support of both the cancer patient and the caregiver. The purpose of this discussion is to investigate and describe the experience of fatigue among caregivers of cancer patients in relation to caregiver age, employment status, number of hours of care provided daily, duration of caregiving, and the impact upon the caregiver's schedule. A sample of 248 caregivers of cancer patients, participating in the Family Homecare Cancer Study, were surveyed regarding fatigue related to their caregiving roles. No relationship was found between severity of fatigue experienced by the caregiver of the cancer patient and caregiver age, employment status, the number of hours of daily caregiving, or its duration. However, a significant relationship was found between fatigue and the impact of care on the daily schedule. This finding has strong implications for the health-care provider, because the more the caregiver's schedule is a burden, the greater will be the fatigue experienced.Presented as an invited lecture at the 4th International Symposium: Supportive Care in Cancer, St. Gallen, Switzerland, 24–27 February 1993Part of this article has already been published in Cancer Nursing (1991) 14:181–187. Permission to publish it here was granted by the authors and Raven Press Ltd., New York     

Australian caregivers of family members with dementia

This study of Australian caregivers revealed that sufferers of dementia were men and women who were cared for mainly by their spouses. A small group of caregivers had little or no personal physical and emotional support from others. Changes in health status related to the caregiving role was reported by 83% of the caregivers. There is a clear need to provide physical and emotional support for caregivers generally and for those with little or no support in particular.     

Impact of caregiving on Finnish family caregivers

Scand J Caring Sci; 2012; 26; 211–218 Impact of caregiving on Finnish family caregivers Background: Numerous studies have examined the caregiver burden that family caregivers often experience. However, caregiving situations may also include positive elements that have recently received greater research attention. Aim: The aim was to examine the positive value and negative impact of caregiving for the family caregiver. Method: Caregiving experience was measured with the modified 15‐item Carers of Older People in Europe Index. Surveys were completed by family caregivers at the baseline and after 6 months. Results: At the baseline, most family caregivers thought that caregiving was worthwhile, had a good relationship with the person they cared for and coped well as a caregiver. Fifty‐five per cent of the respondents did not feel trapped in their caregiver role, though a third did, and a majority found caregiving to be too demanding. Most perceived themselves to be supported by their family, while 40% did not feel supported by health and social services. During the 6‐month study period, the negative impact score declined, and the scores for positive value and quality of support improved. The care recipient’s management at home (p < 0.001) was the single best predictor of the negative impact on the family caregiver; the family caregiver’s older age (p < 0.01) best predicted the quality of support; and the family caregiver’s good relationship with the care recipient (p < 0.01) best predicted the positive value of caregiving. Conclusions: The study indicated that even if the health status of the care recipient dramatically worsened, the family caregiver’s experiences of caregiving became more positive. This is because family caregiving was perceived to be worthwhile, most family caregivers had a close relationship with the person they cared for and they received support from their family. Interventions that focus on family caregivers’ positive experiences of caregiving would be important in protecting them from the negative consequences of caregiving.     

Social problem-solving partnerships with family caregivers.

The goal of this pilot study was to compare the effectiveness of home and telephone social problem-solving partnerships on primary family caregiver outcomes and to determine whether certain caregiver and stroke survivor characteristics influenced these outcomes. Thirty primary family caregivers were assigned to either a home visit, telephone contact, or control group. A registered nurse trained caregivers in the intervention groups in a series of seven telephone calls or home visits during a 12-week period to use social problem-solving skills in managing caregiving problems. Primary family caregiver outcomes were compared before the intervention, during the intervention (at 2 and 5 weeks after discharge), and after the intervention (at 13 weeks after discharge). Compared to the home and control groups, the telephone group had a significant reduction in depression, more positive problem-solving skills, and greater caregiver preparedness during the intervention, and improved, but nonsignificant depression, problem-solving, and caregiver preparedness scores postintervention. Race, age, and education were significant for selected outcomes.     

Humor: preventive therapy for family caregivers

Family caregivers provide the majority of home care for chronically ill family members. Many times, family caregivers become overburdended when the responsibility for caring for a chronically dependent family member is added to other family and occupational responsibilities. Such overburdening is implicated in caregiver burnout. Caregiver respite is one way to decrease role overburdening. Humor is one type of respite that has been underused in primary prevention of caregiver burnout.     

The impact of Alzheimer's disease on family caregivers

An understanding of the concerns and fears of caregivers of Alzheimer patients can help the health care professional provide home care management more effectively.     

Ranked motives of long-term care providing family caregivers

Family caregivers provide long-term care to their chronically ill loved ones and as a consequence they experience physical, relational and financial problems. This study investigates how long-term family caregivers rank 12 motives for caregiving. Motives are derived from the views of four philosophical anthropologists and are related to self-reported stress and joy and to several different background characteristics of respondents. Motives that focus on feelings concerning the relationship between caregiver and care recipient are more popular as a first choice than motives stemming from feelings of obligation or a general feeling of happiness and are also more popular than more self-directed motives. An analysis of full ranking data shows that two groups can be distinguished, one group of family caregivers with mixed motives and one group of family caregivers with motives that focus on reciprocal mutually equal relationships. The latter are mainly women taking care for a partner or a child, the former report high levels of stress. Implications for intervention programmes and health policy are being discussed.