The emotional climate of care-giving in home-care services.

The emotional aspects of the care-giving relationship in home-care services are studied, starting from the home-care recipients' and the home-care workers' perception of the emotional climate. Their experiences of the care-giving relationship and the influence from different aspects of the care-giving situation and social processes in the work organisation are explored. Two hundred and twenty-two recipients and their home-care workers in three typical Swedish municipalities were studied.

Family caregiving in dementia--an analysis of the caregiver's burden and the "breaking-point" when home care becomes inadequate.

The burden of caregivers of patients suffering from of Alzheimer type dementia (DAT) and vascular dementia (VD) was analysed at the critical time, the "breaking-point", when home care becomes insufficient and/or inadequate and the caregiver burden has probably reached its upper limit. Primary family caregivers of 39 DAT and 40 VD patients who were being considered for relocation into group-living units were studied. Total caregiving burden and different aspects of the burden: general strain, isolation, disappointment, and emotional involvement, were correlated with the patients' diagnoses, abilities, and symptoms.

Behavioral disturbances and pharmacological treatment of patients with dementia in family caregiving: a 2-year follow-up.

Behavioral disturbances are common in dementia. Polypharmacy due to progression of disease and fluctuation of symptoms among patients might increase risk of overtreatment and/or undertreatment. Drug prescription habits were studied in relationship to symptoms of dementia after relocation of patients to group-living care units (GC).

Family caregiving in dementia: prediction of caregiver burden 12 months after relocation to group-living care.

The strain of caregiving associated with the care of demented persons living at home often continues after relocation and group-living care units (GL), designed for a small number of subjects, have been developed. The aim was to prospectively describe caregiver burden in relationship to symptoms of patients with dementia after relocation to GL. Sixty-four caregivers and 64 demented patients were assessed before, 6 months after, and 12 months after relocation.

Quality attributes of Swedish home-help services--from a consumer perspective.

From existing Swedish literature, we examined different possible quality aspects of home-help services. We ordered the quality attributes of home help services under six headings: consumer adjustment of the services, competence of the staff and their attitudes, continuity, staff hours per services input, accessibility and information and communication. Concerning the relative importance of different quality aspects, our study indicates that the competence/attitudes of staff were clearly the most important quality factor.