Some Recent Systematic Reviews on the Quality of Life of Unpaid Carers for Persons Living With Dementia (PLoS One / BMC Health Services Research / JBI Database / Clinical Interventions in Aging)

Summary

A recent review examines ten alternative tools for the assessment and measurement of the quality of life of carers for people with dementia.

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Reference

Dow, J. Robinson, J. Robalino, S. [et al] (2018). How best to assess quality of life in informal carers of people with dementia; A systematic review of existing outcome measures. PLoS One. March 14^th 2018; 13(3): e0193398.

An Australian study investigates the effectiveness of “Key Worker Support” model(s) for assisting people living with dementia and their carers / families in accessing support services.

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Reference

Renehan, E. Goeman, D. [and] Koch, S. (2017). Development of an optimised key worker framework for people with dementia, their family and caring unit living in the community. BMC Health Services Research. 2017 Jul 20;17(1):501.

Carers’ Experiences

Possibly of interest, further work is in progress on research into the experiences and perceptions of unpaid carers:

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Reference

Macdonald, M. Martin-Misener, R. [and] Helwig, M. [et al] (2018). Experiences of unpaid family / friend caregivers of community-dwelling adults with dementia: a systematic review protocol. JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports. May 2017; 15(5): 1298-1305.

Mindfulness Training for Unpaid Carers of People With Dementia

There appears to be little evidence to suggest that mindfulness training may be effective in improving the stress-related burden for family caregivers of people with dementia

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Reference

Liu, Z. Chen, QL. [and] Sun, YY. (2017). Mindfulness training for psychological stress in family caregivers of persons with dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Clinical Interventions in Aging. September 22^nd 2017; 12: 1521-1529.