Informal and formal caregivers’ involvement in nursing home care activities: impact of integrated care

Abstract

Informal caregivers contribute to many activities. The impact of integrated care on the degree and nature of involvement, however, was moderate. A possible explanation is the contextual situation for nursing home care. These findings point to the need for further research into the (changing) relationship between formal and informal carers in residential care activities and the evolution of this relationship over time.

The effects of an integrated care intervention for the frail elderly on informal caregivers: a quasi-experimental study

“…Although changes in tasks were considered as possible outcome of the WICM, the direction of such changes was unclear. As described in the background section of this paper, this may have been the outcome of changes in the division of tasks between professionals and informal caregivers [18,19]. The emphasis on the informal caregiver’s participation in care planning and provision might have resulted in a ‘negotiation process’ between the case manager and the caregiver, through which the latter may have become more aware of his or her role in the care process.…”

“…Additionally, providing informal caregivers with adequate information (e.g., regarding available services), improving access to care and support services and increasing their competence in coping with their care responsibilities is thought to act as a safeguard against overburdening and deteriorating health [12,17]. Furthermore, it has been argued that certain characteristics of integrated care, such as the emphasis on informal caregiver participation in care planning and provision and increased collaboration with professionals, may result in changes in the division of tasks [18,19]. For instance, informal caregivers are perhaps relieved of some of their more demanding and time-consuming tasks, while enabling them to attend to tasks that are more compatible with their own wishes, their physical abilities and personal lives.…”

Sustained informal care: The feasibility, construct validity and test–retest reliability of the CarerQol-instrument to measure the impact of informal care in long-term care

“…Using professional care is often a gradual process; from professional home care, to the option of day care in a long-term care (LTC) facility ending with the final alternative of admission to a nursing home (Woittiez, Eggink, Jonker, & Sadiraj, 2009). After institutionalization, many care recipients will still receive care from their family or friends, and the care provided by these caregivers plays an important role in LTC facilities (Paulus, Raak, & Keijzer, 2005;Whitlatch, Schur, Noelker, Ejaz, & Looman, 2001). The need for this involvement of informal care is likely to increase in the future due to a further scarcity of professional LTC, caused by an expected increase in the demand of nursing home care due to the ageing population (van Duin & Loozen, 2009) and a shortage of health care personnel in the labour market (Statistics Netherlands, 2009).…”

“…Informal caregivers perform different tasks in LTC facilities, such as doing laundry, assisting with meals and keeping company (Broese van Groenou, 2010;Paulus et al, 2005;Port et al, 2005;Schneider et al, 2002), which may well be rewarding for informal caregivers. This informal care may reduce the workload of formal caregivers, which is desirable in light of the anticipated shortage of formal care.…”

The impact of integrated care on direct nursing home care

“…Caregivers have to cooperate and coordinate the provision of services in order to meet the demand of residents in an environment in which specific features of the home situation (e.g. residents being engaged in daily activities such as cooking and cleaning or joining social group activities) are copied in nursing home care [4,5]. Traditional nursing home care, on the contrary, is supply oriented (i.e.…”