The psychological wellbeing of carers of people with dementia: What role does knowledge play on carers' perception of dementia?
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The following two papers focus on the psychological wellbeing of carers of people \nwith dementia. The aim of the review paper was to gain an understanding of the \nbarriers that British South Asian carers (BSAC) experience in accessing services. A \nreview of past studies revealed several themes emerging from the literature and these \nincluded: limitations in health professionals' culture competence and linguistic \nabilities, a lack of dementia knowledge by South Asian carers, their perception of \ndementia and associated stigma. A model is proposed integrating these factors leading \nto a discussion of the implications of supporting and providing interventions for \nBSAC. The empirical paper focuses on the relationship between carers' knowledge of \ndementia, anxiety, preferred coping style (monitoring or blunting information) and \ncompetence levels. This questionnaire-based study recruited 51 participants from \nlocal health services and voluntary organisations. The results indicated a significant \nnegative association between biomedical knowledge and anxiety, although this should \nbe interpreted with caution due to a low Cronbach's a Coefficient (.54) on the \nbiomedical subscale. A further significant association was found between knowledge \nand age of carer. Anxiety and competence amongst younger carers was significantly \nnegatively correlated, however there was no association between these two variables \nin older carers. These findings suggest that the perception and understanding of \ndementia may have changed over recent years, especially amongst younger carers, \nwith positive implications in terms of carers' psychological wellbeing. Although \nknowledge about dementia appears to have positive implications in terms of \n(younger) carers' psychological well-being, when providing support and interventions health professionals should not ignore the emotional aspects of caring for a person \nwith dementia.
Author: Catherine Davies
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1651121295