Difference Between Formal And Informal Caregivers

Researchers have identified several types of caregiver burden with somewhat inconsistent results (Knight et al., 2000). The inconsistencies are due to differences in the factor analysis procedures and the labels used to describe the latent factors. In addition, the last item of the ZBI, a summative question, was often not included in the analyses because of its large correlations with many items (Knight et al.; Lai, 2007). Four studies, three of which used the 12-item ZBI (Bedard et al., 2001; O’Rourke et al., 2003; Hebert et al., 2000) and one of which used the full version (Whitlatch et al., 1991), found two latent factors: personal strain and role strain. Personal strain has been defined as “how personally stressful the experience is” and role strain has been defined as “stress due

Carers Trust, (no date) ‘What is a Carer?’ available at www.carers.org/what-carer (accessed 22nd October 2013)

158-159). “In reviewing the literature, the focus was on identifying the impact of parental mental health, the associated risks, the difficulties with the interface working, and proposed solutions” (Duffy et al., 2010, p. 159). Some of concerns expressed for the program to be effective were how mental health and child care services work together, communication between the two, role clarity, and the outcome hoped to be achieved by the development of this program was to provide holistic interventions which could not be provided by just one agency, earlier intervention which was more effective, to decrease staff stress, and to obtain a better outcome for the families involved (Duffy et al.,

The final article I analyzed was titled “Aging Parents of Adults with Serious Mental Illness” and was written by Jennifer Van Pelt. This article sought to address the type of support parents caring for special needs adult children require as they age. It discussed how parents are the primary caregivers to children with a severe mental illness, or SMI, throughout the majority of the child’s life. The amount of care provided to adults with SMI by their aging parents is so substantial that if parental caregivers stopped providing care, public programs could never handle it. The author of this article wanted to put more focus on assisting the aging caregiver population, increase their emotional well-being, and lower their stress burden through the use of a social work home-based intervention program. In the pilot study, families received instruction on problem-solving techniques, education about the adult child’s particular mental illness, and sessions that included cognitive therapy, stress management, behavioral management, and future planning. This initial study yielded promising results, including greater life satisfaction and less emotional stress reported by aging parents. The author concludes the article by discussing the importance of planning for the future and how the adult child with SMI will be taken care of after the parents’ deaths.

Informal care is unpaid care that may be provided by family, friends or neighbours. (Brodsky, Habib and Hirschfield, 2003) state “Informal Care is by far the dominant form of care throughout the world.” This essay will state how important informal care is in modern society and how this has affected current social policy. It will define what the differences are between informal and formal care, what exactly informal care consists of, what a carer is, include statistics about informal carers, explain what the mixed economy of care means and conclude the importance of informal care in society.

Not only do friends and family provide informal caregiving assistance, but, perhaps more importantly, they enhance the emotional wellbeing and coping abilities of a client (Wall & Spira 2012). In a case such as Joe’s where he is living alone, widowed and has minimal contact with his children, it becomes vital that his social connections are strengthened (Tompkins et al. 2012). But while social workers employed in an ACAT may recognise the dangers that social isolation presents, they are often limited in how they can personally help. Instead, if a client meets certain eligibility requirements, they may be referred to a social worker outside the ACAT to provide other types of support (DSS

Using data collected from caregiver assessments and observations, provide needed psychoeducation for caregivers (topics may include positive parenting and appropriate consequences, strategies to increase parental sensitive and responsive to child’s needs, empathy building, consistency of parenting between parents, modelling of appropriate behaviour, and effective community)

Abstract Background: Caregivers of children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) face unique challenges, such as management of care, coordination with multiple specialty providers, and impact on family income, family functioning, and sibling adjustment. The additional stress of managing and coordinating care for CSHCN may have negative impacts on caregiver health. Parents of CSHCN are uniquely qualified to help each other, and parent-to-parent support has been shown to be a powerful stress-buffer for many caregivers of CSHCN. Local problem: Parent support groups are not currently available to parents of children at school for CSHCN located in the southeastern United States. Methods: This QI project utilized the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA)

Regarding all informal carers, one in five is the primary carer (ABS 2004). Primary carers are individuals who provide most informal assistance to the care recipient (Bittman, Griffiths, Hill, & Thomson, 2008) The role of a carer can be very demanding as it involves assisting with the daily routines of the care recipient. This routines include personal care, mobility and providing emotional support (Carers Australia, 2012). Nonetheless, most informal carers also combine caregiving with paid jobs (Alpass, Keeling, & Pond, 2014).

This paper critically appraised a descriptive quantitative study conducted by researchers Tan, Yeoh, Choo, Huang, Hong Ong, Ismail, Ang and Chan that was published in 2012. According to the researchers, the purpose of the article was to examine the levels of burden and the coping strategies experienced by caregivers of persons with schizophrenia in the community. It aims to provide mental healthcare professionals with more information about caregiver stressors and to recommend more effective community resources and support. Researchers accomplished this by the use of appropriate statistical techniques and evaluation of the study findings that included implications for nursing, generalizations, and suggestions for further studies. In the critical appraisal of the article, the sections presented were examined for appropriateness of the methods used and were determined valuable to the field of nursing.

The older adult population in the United States has steadily increased thanks to technology and medical advances. While this definitely is an undeniable achievement, it also creates some challenges that society was not as prevalent to face before. Now that people are living longer it’s also means that often times family members are becoming caregivers to their loved ones during their so called golden years. Not only may it be difficult to care for a loved one, but it also becomes even more burdensome when their loved has a disability. In fact “dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide.” (2016). Fortunately there are adult day centers that serve people with dementia and provide services that can benefit them. However many times caregivers are forgotten about and aren’t provided services that can also benefit them as well. While it does take a bit of pressure off of the caregivers while their loved ones are at the day center, it does not eliminate all the other effects. Many people may not be aware that there are detrimental effects that a caregiver may experience as a result of caring for someone with dementia.

12. Brief Notes (p. 289) – detailed records of observation which will be expanded on later – During the caregiver interview, the researcher documented the participants’ responses to expand on in the report.

The article I chose to analyze is titled Coping in parents of children who are chronically ill: strategies for assessment and intervention, which focused on psychosocial and physical health related determinants in their strategy to confront caregiver burden and promote positive coping strategies to identified stressors. The research done by Melnyk, Feinstein, Moldenhouer, and Small (2001), addressed strategies for assessing stress related needs in parents of chronically ill children and health promotional interventions, which have similarities to aspects of the group’s video and components of their health promotional program structure. Specifically, Melnyk et al. (2001), explore the effects of their educational-behavioral program pilot

November 2004 was the launch of scholar.google.com and since that time it has been very popular amongst those that use it for research. As of May 2014 Google Scholar’s estimated index size was around 160 million documents. (Orduna-Malea, Ayllon, Martin-Martin, & Lopez-Cozar, 2014) This alone illustrates the size of scholar type articles and journals that are available.

A wide network of interconnected factors contributes to caregiver stress: level of child functional ability and behavior, co-existing health challenges, limited social supports, lack of socio-economic resources, poor family functioning, as well as psychological and physical health (Rubin and Crocker 2006). Current interventions provided to parents and caregivers of individuals with different disabilities include respite care and parent support groups. These interventions address certain parts of caregiver stress, such as caregiving demands and social supports, but do not specifically