Despite the vast literature on caregiver stress, few studies have explored how community services affect the stress process for spousal caregivers. The current study explores the differential effects of emotional and tangible support provided by family and friends and by formal services, and caregivers' perceptions of community services on spousal…

Purpose: To identify differences in perspectives that may complicate the process of joint decision making at the end of life, this study determined the agreement of family and staff perspectives about end-of-life experiences in nursing homes and residential care/assisted living communities and whether family and staff roles, involvement in care,…

This article considers policies and strategies employed to professionalise the early childhood workforce in England since the Labour government took office in 1997. The term "professionalisation" is associated here with moves towards creating a graduate early years workforce, which could have implications for training, pay and employment…

This article describes the experiences and perspectives of child welfare workers and maltreated children living in Japanese state care. Japanese adults emphasize supporting children's emotional well-being and empowerment through developmentally and ecologically focused socialization strategies. One developmental goal articulated by caregivers of…

Background: Previous research has identified that staff-client interactions play an important role in the origin and maintenance of challenging behaviour. Particularly, the reciprocity between staff behaviour and client behaviour has been considered a key issue. Furthermore, severe challenging behaviour has been found to elicit negative emotional…

This study explores the perceptions of support workers working with adults with learning/intellectual disabilities, training and support needs. Data was collected by focus group (n = 3) and semi-structured interviews (n = 5). Participants saw their key role as maximising quality of life, identified "Trial and error" as the main mode of skill…

Historically, research about young carers has focused on defining the tasks and responsibilities undertaken by children caring for ill or disabled family members and the impacts of such care, without reference to the domestic and caring work undertaken by children and young people in families where there are only non-disabled or well members. This…

Assessment is a critical step in determining appropriate support services. This article discusses "caregiver assessment," a systematic process of gathering information to describe a caregiving situation. Caregiver assessment identifies the particular problems, needs, resources, and strengths of the family caregiver and approaches issues from the…

Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to test the stress process model (SPM; Pearlin, Mullan, Semple, & Skaff, 1990) in a racially diverse sample of Alzheimer's caregivers (CGs) using structural equation modeling (SEM) and regression techniques. A secondary aim was to examine race or ethnicity as a moderator of the relation between latent…

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study on the contribution of foster home caregivers for people with serious mental illness. Traditionally, social workers have played a key role in the supervision of foster homes. Little is known about how the help caregivers provide is similar to, or different from, that provided by mental…

The authors describe how 3 groups of family caregivers (spouses, daughters, and sons) are affected by the caregiving role. In addition, clinical considerations and interventions for mental health professionals working with these different groups of family caregivers are discussed. A clinical case example is also presented. (Contains 2 tables.)

Forty-nine caregivers in eight daycare centres were interviewed about their daycare experiences, their own childcare decisions and practices, and their views of how their profession is perceived by society. Results suggest that: caregivers comment positively on the process elements of their work, such as their enjoyment and love of children, and…

The factor structure of a Chinese version of the Zarit Burden Interview was assessed with a random sample of Chinese caregivers in Canada. The results indicated that the latent constructs identified in earlier studies on caregivers did not fit well when tested with Chinese caregivers. Exploratory factor analysis reported a five-factor solution,…

The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion and research about patient suffering and caregiver compassion. It is our view that these constructs are central to understanding phenomena such as family caregiving, and that recognizing their unique role in the caregiving experience provides new directions for intervention research, clinical…

As the proportion of older adults in the U.S. population grows, the prevalence of visual impairment related to cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy will increase as well. Individuals who are visually impaired require various degrees of support and assistance in their daily activities. This assistance is frequently…