Category: Dementia – Supporting Carers

In this study, randomized controlled interventional study pattern was used to examine the effects of the “First You Should Get Stronger” program on the caregiving burden and healthy life style behavior of caregivers of dementia patients.  “Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale” and “Healthy Life Style Behavior Scale” were used. The study was completed with 40 caregivers in total with 20 in the intervention group and 20 in the control group. A statistically significant difference was determined between the “Zarit Caregiving Burden Scale” and “Healthy Life Style Behavior Scale” score averages of the intervention group that participated in the “First You Should Get Stronger” program in comparison with those of the control group.
It is important for the healths of caregivers to include similar programs for the caregivers of dementia patients in continuous and regular applications. The results highlight the importance of the “First You Should Get Stronger” program significantly decreased the caregiving burden and significantly developed the healthy lifestyle behaviors of caregivers in the intervention group. Since dementia is a difficult neurological syndrome with patients cared at home, it generally wears out the caregivers significantly. It is suggested that the nurses and healthcare professionals working with dementia patients are evaluated separately and that they carry out caregiving applications within the scope of the “First You Should Get Stronger” program.

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Psychosocial interventions for carers of people with dementia are increasingly recognized as playing an important role in dementia care. We aim to systematically review the evidence from existing systematic reviews of psychosocial interventions for informal carers of people with dementia. Thirty-one systematic reviews were identified; following quality appraisal, data from 13 reviews, rated as high or moderate quality, were extracted. Well-designed, clearly structured multi-component interventions can help maintain the psychological health of carers of people with dementia and delay institutionalization of the latter. To be most effective, such interventions should include both an educational and a therapeutic component; delivery through a support group format may further enhance their effectiveness. Successful translation of evidence into practice in this area remains a challenge. Future research should focus on determining the most cost-effective means of delivering effective multi-component interventions in real-world settings; the cost-effective potential of technology-based interventions is considerable.

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Although caring for a person with dementia can be stressful, some caregivers appear to experience few negative consequences to their well-being. This study aimed to examine what proportion of caregivers demonstrates resilience under different challenging circumstances and to identify factors related to their resilience. Baseline data from 4 studies from the Netherlands and UK among informal caregivers of people with dementia were harmonized and integrated. Caregiver resilience was defined as high levels of psychological well-being despite different types of high caregiving demands.

Being a male caregiver, caring for a female, living apart from your relative, and low caregiver burden were positively related to caregiver resilience. Caregivers have the capacity to demonstrate resilience despite significant challenges. This study demonstrates how harmonization of data from multiple existing studies can be used to increase power and explore the consistency of findings. This contributes to a better understanding of which factors are likely to facilitate caregiver resilience and offers insights for developing services.

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The majority of care for those with Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related dementias is provided in the home by family members. To date, there is no consistently effective intervention for reducing the significant stress burden of many family caregivers. The present pilot randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of an adapted, eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, relative to a near structurally equivalent, standard social support (SS) control condition for reducing caregiver stress and enhancing the care giver-recipient relationship.

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The relationship between people with dementia and their carers is complex and has a significant impact on the dementia experience. The aim of this current study was to determine (1) which factors are associated with the quality of the patient-carer relationship and (2) whether these differ between the two perspectives. This study is novel in that it provides a valuable insight into the impact of mental health on relationship quality for both members of the dyad. The findings emphasise the importance of providing interventions which target mood for both parties, and behavioural problems for people with dementia.

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Advances in longevity and medicine mean that many more people in the UK survive life-threatening diseases but are instead susceptible to life-limiting diseases such as dementia. Within the next 10 years those affected by dementia in the UK is set to rise to over 1 million, making reliance on family care of people with dementia (PWD) essential. A central challenge is how to improve family carer support to offset the demands made by dementia care which can jeopardise carers’ own health. This review investigates ‘what works to support family carers of PWD’.

‘Resilience-building’ is central to ‘what works to support family carers of PWD’. The resulting model and Programme Theories respond to the burgeoning need for a coherent approach to carer support.

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Ambivalence has been described as simultaneous positive and negative emotional experiences. Although ambivalent feelings are often reported by dementia family caregivers, the effect of these feelings on caregivers’ mental health has not been studied. Furthermore, the measurement of ambivalence specific to caregiving situations has not been studied.
Ambivalent feeling scores significantly contributed to the explanation of caregivers’ depressive and anxious symptoms after controlling for sociodemographic and stressor variables. The CAS shows good psychometric properties that recommend its use as a measure of ambivalent feelings in caregivers and appears to be a relevant variable for understanding caregivers’ mental health.

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Support groups have demonstrated promising outcomes for individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage dementia (ESD) in previous literature reviews. However, evidence has not been updated since 2007. The current review aimed to update current evidence on the use and effects of support groups for individuals with MCI and ESD and their care partners. Support groups showed positive impacts on participant acceptance of cognitive impairment; performance and satisfaction of meaningful activity; resilience; self-help; and care partner coping self-efficacy, perceived support, and preparation and task effectiveness. Findings also revealed that support groups were well accepted by participants and care partners.

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This study aimed to develop a Home-based and Computerized version of CST to be performed by the Person With Dementia (PWD) with the support of the caregiver. Materials: The group CST protocol (14 structured sessions) was adapted for the computerized administration, respecting the CST guiding principles, and then implemented on a Tablet. A manual of instructions and toolkit (e.g. lyrics book, map of Italy) were provided with the Tablet. A group of Person with Dementia and caregivers took part to this pilot study. Methods: All the fourteen sessions are usable through a Tablet, with Android v. 4.4 as operating system, and define an Android application (shortly APP), developed in JAVA. Each session is introduced by a video where an operator speaks about the daily activities, followed by Welcome, Karaoke, Reality Orientation and News, the main activity of the day and the concluding part. Neuropsychological assessment was carried out before and after treatment. Results: The platform is user-friendly and satisfactory for the PWD and caregiver. After treatment, PWD had significant increase of performance in some ADAS-COGS subscales (word recall, commands, orientation), functional abilities (DAD total and execution), and caregiver reported a higher sense of competence. Conclusions: The home-based and computerized CST application is a complete and suitable platform for PWD. Discussion: The developed computerized version of CST seems to be a promising tool in offering CST at home to PWD including the caregiver.

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To establish primary features of training programmes designed to assist family caregivers of people with dementia living at home and to propose a model programme based on literature findings. Due to dementia’s distinctive progression, there is a widely felt need to train family members who undertake the responsibility of caring for relatives diagnosed with this condition to provide positive care, particularly during the early and middle stages of the disease.
This review has identified a set of features transversal to training programmes for family members who undertake the care for individuals with dementia living at home, which will bolster the construction and validation of other programmes in the area. More studies about such programmes need to be implemented, particularly engaged in their conceptual and experimental validation. The results of this review assist nurses by increasing their awareness of the basic assumptions supporting training programmes for family members responsible for individuals with dementia living at home and subsequently enforce them during their interventions with such population.

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