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Experts say that older people are increasingly turning to alternative methods of care as spiralling costs and sharp price rises mean care homes are not worth the money.
Access the paper by clicking here How families are coping with soaring care home price rises
According to a recent report by the charity Carers Trust young carers aged 5-8 are amongst the most hidden and least supported group of unpaid carers in the UK.
Access the paper by clicking here Breaking into news: UK has 700,000 youngsters sacrificing their childhoods to be young carers reports claim
Drawing from the experiences of an organisation who works
with mental health carers, this briefing highlights the importance of widening the global mental health agenda to include local carers’ voices, greater government investment in mental health with social protection schemes for carers, flexible paid employment arrangements, and innovative mental health care actions.
Access the paper by clicking here The global importance of including mental health carers in policy
As the overwhelming majority of older people prefer to remain in their own homes and communities, innovative service provision aims to promote independence of older people despite incremental age associated frailty. Reablement is one such service intervention that is rapidly being adopted across high-income countries and projected to result in significant cost-savings in public health expenditure by decreasing premature admission to acute care settings and long-term institutionalisation. It is an intensive, time-limited intervention provided in people’s homes or in community settings, often multi-disciplinary in nature, focussing on supporting people to regain skills around daily activities. It is goal-orientated, holistic and person-centred irrespective of diagnosis, age and individual capacities. Reablement is an inclusive approach that seeks to work with all kinds of frail people but requires skilled professionals who are willing to adapt their practise, as well as receptive older people, families and care staff. Although reablement may just seem the right thing to do, studies on the outcomes of this knowledge-based practice are inconsistent-yet there is an emerging evidence and practice base that suggests that reablement improves performance in daily activities. This innovative service however may lead to hidden side effects such as social isolation and a paradoxical increase in hospital admissions. Some of the necessary evaluative research is already underway, the results of which will help fill some of the evidence gaps outlined here.
The Academy Library does not currently subscribe to the journal that this article appears in, however we can most likely request it from another library. Please contact the UHSM Academy Library for more detail or call 0161 291 5778.
As the government prepares a new national carers strategy, this news item looks at the realities of the role and what needs to change.
Access the paper by clicking here The difference the Care Act can make to carers – and why too few benefit
The universal breadwinner model means both parents are employed; while the universal caregiver model implies that the father’s hours of caregiving are equal or higher to those of the mother. This study aims to examine the hypothesis that the universal caregiver model is more related to the overall well-being of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities than the universal breadwinner model. Face-to-face interview surveys were conducted in 2011 in Taiwan with 876 working-age mothers who had an offspring with intellectual disabilities. The survey included 574 mothers living with their husbands who became our participants. Both anova and regression analyses indicated that, compared with mothers in the universal breadwinner group, mothers in the universal caregiver group had higher levels of maternal marital and family life satisfaction, but not of work satisfaction and quality of life. An incentive policy is critical for supporting the fathers involved in lifelong caregiving and to promote the mothers’ quality of life.
The Academy Library does not currently subscribe to the journal that this article appears in, however we can most likely request it from another library. Please contact the UHSM Academy Library for more detail or call 0161 291 5778.
Family care support services have mainly focused on older spousal carers of older people and have largely overlooked working carers, whom combine paid work with informal/family care responsibilities. Recently, however, information and communication technology (ICT) systems have been identified as a potentially flexible way of supporting working carers.
The use of information and communication technologies to support working carers of older people (Follow this link if you have an Athens password). Alternatively contact the UHSM Academy Library for a copy of the article or call 0161 291 5778)
The objective of this study was gather pilot data from informal caregivers regarding the potential for a training program to assist current or past caregivers in reentering the job market, and thus offering a pathway to economic resilience. In an effort that could foster a sustainable and competent caregiving market to help meet the needs of an aging America, whether training informal caregivers might help them transition into a paid caregiving or other health service role was explored.
Leveraging the experiences of informal caregivers to create future healthcare workforce options (Follow this link if you have an Athens password). Alternatively contact the UHSM Academy Library for a copy of the article or call 0161 291 5778)
When a person with dementia dies, their former spouse-carer can find their personal resources so depleted that re-engaging in life can be difficult, leaving their mental health vulnerable. This qualitative study aimed to explore whether the occupations of spouse-carers contribute in the transition to the post-care period.
The Academy Library does not currently subscribe to the journal that this article appears in, however we can most likely request it from another library. Please contact the UHSM Academy Library for more detail or call 0161 291 5778.
The purpose of this study is to contribute to an understanding on how home health caregivers experience engagement in their work, and specifically, how aspects of home healthcare work create meaning associated with employee engagement. Although much research on engagement has been conducted, little has addressed how individual differences such as worker orientation influence engagement, or how engagement is experienced within a caregiving context. The study is based on a qualitative study in two home homecare organisations in Denmark using a think-aloud data technique, interviews and observations. The analysis suggests caregivers experience meaning in three relatively distinct ways, depending on their work orientation. Specifically, the nature of engagement varies across caregivers oriented towards being ‘nurturers’, ‘professionals’, or ‘workers’, and the sources of engagement differ for each of these types of caregivers. The article contributes by (i) advancing our theoretical understanding of employee engagement by emphasising meaning creation and (ii) identifying factors that influence meaning creation and engagement of home health caregivers, which should consequently affect the quality of services provided home healthcare patients.
Meaning creation and employee engagement in home health caregivers (Follow this link if you have an Athens password). Alternatively contact the UHSM Academy Library for a copy of the article or call 0161 291 5778)