Evaluation of a pilot study day for healthcare assistants and social care officers.

Unlabelled: This report evaluates a pilot study day, which provided an introduction for healthcare assistants and social care officers into the causes, incidence and impact of symptoms encountered when providing palliative care for people with advanced disease.

Aim: To demonstrate whether the study day facilitated an increase in confidence and knowledge in key areas of symptom control, the degree of satisfaction with the study day and whether participants were able to use information from the study day in practice.

Method: Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the evaluation process.

The willingness to continue caring in family supporters of older people.

Research has revealed the importance of characteristics of the supporter, the care-recipient, and circumstances of caregiving in the success or failure of community-based care of older people. The Dundee Study of Carers and Dementia examined factors associated with the maintenance and care of older people in the community, and with the impact of dementia on family supporters. Two hundred and twenty-eight family supporters of community-resident older people (>/=65) (50% with dementia, 50% without, matched for age and sex) were interviewed.