Articles: caregivers.
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Advances in medical care have led to a growing population of special needs children who are at risk for suboptimal care when they present to a physician with no previous knowledge of their medical history. This risk may be amplified in the emergency department setting when time-sensitive interventions must be initiated without immediate access to consultants or past records. Our purpose in this study was to evaluate caretakers' knowledge of their children's chronic medical problems and their ability to relate this knowledge to unfamiliar health care providers. ⋯ Caretakers are not always able to accurately relay vital information on their child's essential medical needs, a problem that may be compounded in emergency situations. The use of some form of independent identification and information set is needed to assure proper treatment of children with special health care needs encountering an unfamiliar health care provider.
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To ensure patients will be discharged to stable, health-promoting home environments, nurses must understand family caregivers' perceptions of the patients' needs and problems in caring for them. At the time patients were admitted to and discharged from the hospital, there was little agreement between family caregivers and nurses about the kinds of things caregivers needed to care for older patients or about problems that might prevent the continuation of caregiving. There was slightly more overall agreement between family care-givers and admission nurses than discharge nurses, despite the fact that discharge nurses reported spending more time with patients and being more knowledgeable about them. Future discharge planning models should build opportunities for nurses to communicate with other health care colleagues who can contribute to a more accurate and complete picture of patients' and family caregivers' needs and problems in the transition from hospital to home.
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Dementia patients need assistance or supervision in their daily activities. This often places a major burden on their caregivers. The caregiver burden is reportedly a critical determinant for negative caregiving outcomes. However, in Japan, no study evaluating the burden experienced by caregivers for patients with established dementia diagnosis with a standardized instrument has been carried out. The Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview (ZBI) is a standardized, validated, reliable tool for assessment of the burden of caregivers for dementia patients, and has been used in many studies in North America. In this study, we arranged a Japanese version of the ZBI and applied it to caregivers who were caring dementia patients. After examining the reliability and validity of this version, we then studied a relationship between patients' impairments and caregivers' burden. ⋯ This Japanese version of the ZBI has a sufficient reliability and validity comparable to those reported for the original version. Our results suggested that the patients' functional and neuropsychiatric impairments were main patient's factors to increase the caregiver's burden.
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Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Jun 1998
CANDID--Counselling and Diagnosis in Dementia: a national telemedicine service supporting the care of younger patients with dementia.
To audit and evaluate the introduction of a novel support service for younger people with dementia, their families and the professionals caring for them. ⋯ The service has become rapidly accepted and used by families of patients and members of the public. Healthcare professionals have made less use of the service than anticipated, but it is hoped that this will increased as information about the service becomes disseminated.