A new senior caregiver for a new millennium- the EduCare project

Health & Social Care in the Community

There is a worldwide increase in the number of family carers and there are well-documented concerns about how the care-related challenges arising from the world's ageing population can be met by families and communities (OECD, 2011; Pickard, 2015). The national and international research, knowledge and evidence base around the role and contribution of carers has grown significantly in size and shape since the 1980s. This has: helped raise carers' profile in public discourse; ensure the foregrounding of caring as an important issue within social policy nationally and internationally; driven forward carer research; and informed improvements in support services

The burden of aging society and concern towards the shift in young-old population balance is felt throughout the world. The increasing proportions of older persons have been accompanied, in most populations, by steady declines in the proportion of young persons (UN, 2013). Population of over 60 years olds will reach to one billion within the decade estimates report prepared by UNFPA and Help Age International, 2012. In India too, the pressure is mounting with the increased number of 'Older' people (60+ years) by 54.77 percent in the last 15 years. Older People are now living longer with increasing life expectancy and availability of better health facilities but are also requiring more assistance or care to manage their day to day activities. There are many challenges in providing better quality of life to older people especially those requiring high support needs. Older people as a group are also divers and each of them have a distinct need. Carers of older person play a key role in meeting these challenges. Caregivers represent an important source of care for older person and are present in some form in all societies. A caregiver is someone who assumes responsibility for the care of an older person who has some health problems. In Indian context, this role is usually played by family member /members mainly female spouse, daughter in law, son or daughter. The role of caregiver can become increasingly burdensome if the person needs constant care. However, as older persons have many assets, strengths and resources, they can be used, involved in the process of providing care. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the issues/problems faced by caregivers, level of stress experienced by them in their family relationship and adjustment, burden in different areas of family functioning, social and emotional reactions of caregivers to the responsibility of care giving. The paper is based on the findings of an empirical qualitative in-depth study conducted in the state of Gujarat, India during the year 2012-13. The study concludes that care giving role is a serious and ongoing process. Caregivers often face hardships of various kinds. Daily activities of the care giving coupled with lack of social and familial support causes burden of care, stress and frustration and greatly affect care givers contributing to negative adaptation to the situation thus affecting the their total quality of life. In spite of this carers found lot of satisfaction in the role of carer and carried it out as a sense of their duty to give back.

International Journal of Care Scholars, 2022

Family caregivers play a significant role in the care of older people. However, their knowledge, practice and needs in the care of older people often overlooked. Therefore, this review was performed to provide an overview of family caregivers' knowledge, practice and needs in the care of older people. A literature search was conducted using the following electronic databases: ProQuest Health and Medical Complete, Wiley Online Library, EBSCO Host, Science Direct and Scopus. Search terms used were "older people", "family caregiver", "knowledge", "practice" and "needs". Two reviewers independently screened the studies and the extracted data. A total of 2115 eligible studies were identified after database search. Only nine studies met the inclusion criteria after full article screening and were included for data extraction. This review of the articles presents a summary of (1) family caregivers' knowledge about the care of older people, (2) family caregivers' practice in the care of older people and (3) family caregivers' needs in the care of older people. The analysis reveals that most of the caregivers addressed a lack of knowledge and poor practice in the care of older people. This review also offers important insight into the needs of family caregivers. Hence, this review recommends further studies on knowledge, practice and needs in the care of older people to identify contextual challenges and provide evidence-based solutions to improve family caregivers' knowledge, practice and needs in the care of older people.

2017

This NIHR-SSCR funded scoping review provides a comprehensive mapping of what is known about carers and caring, and aims to help inform policy, practice and research in relation to carers. The review was undertaken by searching 10 electronic bibliographic databases, supplemented by additional web searches to identify academic research, grey literature and wider knowledge. The analysis adopts a selective thematic approach covering: carer variables - the characteristics of different types of carer and different caring situations; types of care - the nature of needs of the cared for person and the features of the care situation; the impact of caring – resilience and coping, employment and health; and carer support and needs assessment. The final section highlights key messages identified from the review. It found that caring involves all sections and age groups of the population, with people are likely to experience one or more periods of caregiving over their lifetime. The uniqueness ...

2018

This paper identifies the needs of caregivers, i.e. those who provide help to senior members of their families who are dependent and cannot perform the activities of daily living. Results are based on an explorative study that was conducted in 2017. The research used in-depth interviewing with 62 main caregivers. Altogether 76 different needs were identified and these needs were subsequently clustered into nine categories and described in detail. The identified needs may serve as a source of criteria for evaluating prospective interventions aimed at caregivers.

Health & Social Care in the Community

Findings from international research emphasis the need of these young people to be identified and recognised. Therefore, a nationwide quantitative study of professionals' awareness was conducted in the Swiss context. Data were collected from professionals working in education, healthcare and social services. The study examined professionals' familiarity with the terms used to describe young people with caring responsibilities; their ability to identify the population in their professional context; their perception of the relevance of the issue; their ability to support them; and their own training needs. Potential study participants were contacted via email. Data were collected using an online survey which was open for 14 weeks during the period of September to December 2016. Survey data from 2'311 professionals, who reported being regularly in contact with young people with caring responsibilities in their occupational context, were included for analysis. Of all terms presented in the survey, young carer was the term most familiar to all professionals. Among healthcare and education sector, the percentage of professionals familiar with this term was higher than that among professionals from social services. Professionals from social services were the most likely to consider the issue relevant to their work, those from education were the least likely. Professionals who were familiar with the terms describing young carers were more likely to consider the issue relevant to their work. Study results showed that more than half of the respondents had not identified young people with caring responsibilities, and that the ability of participants to identify young carers was related to their occupational sector. The perceived ability to support young carers was related to their reported ability to recognise them. In order to Main Text File 4 enable professionals to support young carers, raising awareness, providing training for professionals and a national network of existing organisations should be well considered.

As the incidence of dementia increases with age and people are generally living longer, the number of people requiring care will continue to rise. There are approximately 820 000 people in the UK with dementia and over 500 000 carers who are not part of the health and social care workforce. These unpaid carers provide support to the person with dementia, often sacrificing their own work, social and family life. As part of the 'Partnerships in recovery' module studied in the third year of the pre-registration mental health nursing programme at the University of the West of Scotland, the first author (DR) chose to use a pycho-education intervention to benefit the needs of a carer and client with vascular dementia. Providing support and education increases the likelihood of both carer and client engaging in a life that is meaningful and hopeful.

Foreword National Council for the Elderly Comments and Recommendations Authors' Acknowledgements Chapter I Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Objectives of Advisory Report 1.3 Structure of Advisory Report 1.4 Note on Terminology Chapter 2 Education and Training for Carers of Older People -A Review of the Literature 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Extent and Nature of Formal and Informal Social Care of Older People in Ireland 2.3 Debates Concerning the Need to Expand Social Care Services and Concerning the Relative Values of Formal and I nformal Care 2.4 Debates Concerning the Education and Training of ~ 31 Carers of Older People 2.5 Education and Training of Carers of Older People in Europe 2.6 Conclusion 5.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Many informal caregivers of older adults combine their caregiving tasks with a paid job. Adequate support is important to enable them to combine paid work with caregiving, while maintaining their health and wellbeing. To date, however, knowledge about working caregivers’ support needs is fragmented. This study, therefore, aimed to obtain more insight into the support needs of working caregivers of older adults. We conducted six online semi-structured focus group interviews with in total 25 working caregivers of older adults living at home. Data were complemented with information from seven working caregivers participating in the study’s advisory board. Data were analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Six themes related to working caregivers’ needs were identified: (1) Recognition of caregivers, including the challenges they face; (2) Attention for caregivers’ health, wellbeing and ability to cope; (3) Opportunities to share care responsibilities; (4) Help with fin...

2018

This paper identifies the needs of caregivers, i.e. those who provide help to senior members of their families who are dependent and cannot perform the activities of daily living. Results are based on an explorative study that was conducted in 2017. The research used in-depth interviewing with 62 main caregivers. Altogether 76 different needs were identified and these needs were subsequently clustered into nine categories and described in detail. The identified needs may serve as a source of criteria for evaluating prospective interventions aimed at caregivers.