Family Caregivers of Veterans Experience High Levels of Burden, Distress, and Financial Strain

Shepherd‐Banigan, Megan; Sherman, Sophia; Lindquist, Jennifer H.; Miller, Katherine; Tucker, Matthew; Smith, Valerie A.; Houtven, Courtney Harold Van

doi:10.1111/jgs.16767

Cited by 23 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(115 reference statements)

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“…When one considers the financial savings mentioned earlier, with informal caregiving relieving the NHS of around £152 billion in care per year [ 47 ], it is devastating to think that the informal caregivers are provided with far less than a minimum wage job per week in order to provide this care, especially with the current cost of living crisis. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the financial strains associated with informal caregiving have been linked to mental ill health and physical ill health within these informal caregivers [ 36 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal Caregiving and Alzheimer’s Disease: The Psychological Effect

Hellis

Mukaetova‐Ladinska

2022

Medicina

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Background and Objectives: People with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in general benefit from home-based care as demonstrated via their better quality of life, increased lifespan, and delayed disease progression. Since currently nearly half of the dementia care is being provided by informal and unpaid caregiving, the health, wellbeing and quality of life of informal dementia caregivers is extremely important. Materials and Methods: We used a systematic review process with searches based upon the six elements from the “Quality of Life Scale for Informal Carers of Older Adults” with additional items on traditional and non-traditional caregiving ideologies, as well as caregivers’ experiences. Results: We identified 19 studies with primary data. Informal caregivers of older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease experience significant emotional strain, documented through increased levels of anxiety and depression, as well as increased caregiver burden and poorer quality of life, primarily due to caregiving ideologies, financial strain and a lack of support. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that caregiving should be a normative component of adult education to better prepare individuals with the mental and physical skills required for undertaking informal caregiving. They should also help inform policy makers to develop novel programs and services to both assist and reduce informal caregivers’ strain, whilst considering their different social and cultural contexts.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal Caregiving and Alzheimer’s Disease: The Psychological Effect

Hellis

Mukaetova‐Ladinska

2022

Medicina

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“…Research has demonstrated the negative impacts of service on the health and well-being of family members of veterans (Cramm et al, 2015;Forrest et al, 2018;Shepherd-Banigan et al, 2020). This serving member, so comparisons were unable to be made between carers of current and former serving personnel; however, this is an avenue that should be explored.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research has demonstrated the negative impacts of service on the health and well‐being of family members of veterans (Cramm et al., 2015; Forrest et al., 2018; Shepherd‐Banigan et al., 2020). This is further supported by the Productivity Commission (Australian Government Productivity Commission, 2019), who recommended that more research is required to understand the impact of service on the mental health and well‐being of veterans' families.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caring for carers: Understanding the physical and psychological well‐being of carers of veterans in Australia

Post

Agteren

Kasai

et al. 2021

Health Social Care Comm

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Carers of veterans tend to put their own physical and psychological well‐being needs behind the needs of the person they are caring for and often do not seek assistance for their own physical and psychological well‐being. Combined, these factors lead to increased risk of acute and chronic illness and mental health issues. It is acknowledged that physical activity independently contributes to improved physical and mental health and may be a driver for mental well‐being in carers. The aim of this pilot research was to understand how movement behaviour and health behaviours of carers of veterans in Australia relate to carers' physical and psychological well‐being. Assessment occurred between February and July 2019 and included objective, validated measures to examine physical and psychological well‐being. To assess the association between physical and psychological factors, correlational analyses were performed. Twenty‐eight carers participated in the pilot study (96% female, mean age 61.6 years). Exercise capacity varied, and 84% of carers met the recommended 150 min of physical activity per week, with carers spending 8.6% of their time in moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity; and 37.9% of the day sedentary. Psychological health outcomes reflect a population with high distress levels and lower than average mental well‐being, but with normal resilience scores. Carers with higher levels of resilience had greater exercise capacity, covering further distance in the 6‐min walk test, and as resilience increased, number of sedentary bouts decreased. This research demonstrates that there is a relationship between health behaviours and psychological well‐being in carers of veterans and serving personnel. Based on the findings of this pilot study, programmes to support family carers should include information about physical activity, reducing sedentary time, and increasing resilience. Interventions designed to improve physical and psychological well‐being should be trialled and evaluated for effectiveness.

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“…We conduct secondary analysis of existing survey data, thus we examine measures selected by the VA Caregiver Support Program Partnered Evaluation Center as informed by adopting the Organizing Framework for Caregiver Interventions 32,38,39…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Caregivers of Veterans Experience Clinically Significant Levels of Distress Prepandemic and During Pandemic

et al. 2022

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Background: Of the 26.4 million family caregivers in the United States, nearly 40% report high levels of emotional strain and subjective burden. However, for the 5 million caregivers of Veterans, little is known about the experiences of caregivers of Veterans during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Objective: The aim was to examine pandemic-related changes of caregiver well-being outcomes. Research Design, Subjects, and Measures: Using a pre/post design and longitudinal data of individual caregivers captured pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19, we use multilevel generalized linear mixed models to examine pandemic-related changes to caregiver well-being (n=903). The primary outcome measures include Zarit Subjective Burden, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale, perceived financial strain, life chaos, and loneliness. Results: During the pandemic, we observe slight improvements for caregivers across well-being measures except for perceived financial strain. Before the pandemic, we observed that caregivers screened positive for clinically significant caregiver burden and probable depression. While we do not observe worsening indicators of caregiver well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, the average predicted values of indicators of caregiver well-being remain clinically significant for caregiving subjective burden and depression. Conclusions: These findings illuminate pandemic-related impacts of caregivers receiving support through the Veterans Affairs (VA) pre-COVID and during the COVID-19 pandemic while caring for a population of frail, older care-recipients with a high burden of mental illness and other chronic conditions. Considering the long-term impacts of the pandemic to increase morbidity and the expected increased demand for caregivers in an aging population, these consistently high levels of distress despite receiving support highlight the need for interventions and policy reform to systematically support caregivers more broadly.

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Family Caregivers of Veterans Experience High Levels of Burden, Distress, and Financial Strain

Cited by 23 publications

References 35 publications

Informal Caregiving and Alzheimer’s Disease: The Psychological Effect

Informal Caregiving and Alzheimer’s Disease: The Psychological Effect

Caring for carers: Understanding the physical and psychological well‐being of carers of veterans in Australia

Family Caregivers of Veterans Experience Clinically Significant Levels of Distress Prepandemic and During Pandemic

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