Category: Dementia – Supporting Carers

This article aimed to identify information available in six European countries (England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden) that addresses the specific needs of people with young onset dementia (YOD) and their carers, and identify gaps. Information is an important means of supporting carers; their needs change as the condition progresses.

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Family caregivers of people with dementia must attend to medical care needs of their relative, yet few available resources address comorbidities in dementia. Consequently, caregivers feel ill-equipped when medical concerns arise. In response, an educational resource-Alzheimer’s Medical Advisor ( AlzMed)-was developed in 2 forms (website and book) and evaluated.

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Spouses of persons living with dementia both anticipate future loss and grieve for multiple losses occurring with caregiving and this ultimately influences their bereavement experience.
The unique contribution of this study to the dementia literature is the finding that the overall process of reclaiming self is significant to the bereavement journey.

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This article reports on a study which investigates the relationship between dementia caregivers’ communication behaviors (information seeking and forwarding) and their outcomes (coping outcomes: e.g., dealing better with negative feelings or improved medical outcomes).

The results show that communication behaviors in cyberspace are crucial for caregivers to cope with dementia, both affectively (improvement of caregivers’ emotional control) and physically (health improvement of patients). The implications for the improvement of public health through online health communication behaviors are discussed.

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The economic impact of dementia is huge and difficult to evaluate due to the combination of direct and indirect costs. Around 80% of all patients with dementia are cared for by their families, which cover a mean of 87% of the total economic cost, resulting in considerable economic and health burden on caregivers and loss of quality of life.

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The economic impact of dementia is huge and difficult to evaluate due to the combination of direct and indirect costs. Around 80% of all patients with dementia are cared for by their families, which cover a mean of 87% of the total economic cost, resulting in considerable economic and health burden on caregivers and loss of quality of life.

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Lewy body dementia is an increasingly prevalent condition, and is currently estimated to comprise a quarter of all dementias. Patients and carers commonly look to the world wide web as a source of health information, but internet information on Lewy body dementia is difficult to understand. Most was readable only to those with a third level education. This study illustrates that improvements are required to provide patients and carers with clearer online information on Lewy body dementia.

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Very few recent studies are available that compare caregiver burden, sleep quality, and stress in caregivers of different types of dementia. We aimed to investigate caregiver burden, sleep quality, and stress in caregivers of patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration and dementia with Lewy bodies, as compared with caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Caregivers of frontotemporal lobar degeneration and dementia with Lewy bodies patients experienced significantly more burden compared to Alzheimer’s disease caregivers. The frequency and severity of behavioral disturbances in patient and caregiver stress accounted for the increased caregiver burden, which suggests that frontotemporal lobar degeneration and dementia with Lewy bodies caregivers should receive more support than is currently available.

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The results showed a great stabilizing effect of the intervention on caregiver burden, that is, comparing pre- and post-measurements the burden decreased very slightly in the intervention group whereas it increased very strongly in the control group. After a three-month follow-up period this effect decreased from a great to a moderate effect. There were also improvements as a result of the intervention in somatization, health-related psychological quality of life and the reaction of the informal caregivers in response to challenging behaviors of the relative with dementia. Moreover, the frequency of challenging behaviors of the affected person itself was reduced in favor of the intervention.

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This randomized controlled trial examined the comparative effectiveness of 2 interventions for improving life satisfaction and reducing stress symptoms among older female dementia family caregivers. The results indicate that mindfulness meditation and mantra has promise as a feasible and effective caregiver intervention for quality of life and physiological responding to stress.

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