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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Alzheimer's disease in real life
— the dementia carer's survey | | Author(s) | Jean Georges, Sabine Jansen, Jim Jackson |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 23, no 5, May 2008 |
| Pages | pp 546-551 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Behaviour ; Informal care ; Social surveys ; France ; Germany ; Poland ; Canada ; Scotland. |
| Annotation | Informal care from relatives provides the foundation of care for people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). It is important to understand the conditions under which carers perform their often neglected task. The dementia carer's survey aimed to identify carers' needs, differences between countries with regard to dementia care, and the level of satisfaction of carers with services used. The survey was conducted through Alzheimer Europe's member organisations in France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK (Scotland). The survey was in the form of a questionnaire, and topics covered included: demographics of carers and people with AD; time spent caring; disclosure of diagnosis; symptoms prompting diagnosis; diagnostic process; current and most distressing symptoms; carers' information requirements; and evaluation of services. Each country had some 200 respondents. Time spent caring increases with disease severity, and 50% of carers of people with late-stage dementia spent more than 10 hours a day caring. Activities of daily living (ADLs) and behaviour were cited as the most problematic symptoms, reported by 68% and 50% of carers, respectively. Provision of information on all aspects of AD was felt to be inadequate, with key services such as home support not available to the majority of carers. Only 17% of carers considered the level of care for older people in their country as good. Further development of services and information provision are required to help carers in their everyday caring, including coping with problematic symptoms influencing areas such as ADLs and behaviour. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080721002 A |
| Classmark | EA: DM: P6: 3F: 765: 767: 7AE: 7S: 9A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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