Assessment of psychosocial and psychiatric needs is an increasingly important component of cancer care. Clinical experience with patients indicate that distress, anxiety and depression are prevalent from early stages of the illness. Strategies to enhance psychosocial care are presented and these include early identification through screening, training for healthcare staff working with cancer patients and support not only for patients but their caregivers as well.
Anxiety ; diagnosis ; Anxiety Disorders ; Caregivers ; Depression ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; psychology

Along with the aging of population, dementia became a social problem disturbing our life. Western researches focused on caregivers found that, the more severe the dementiais, the more burdens on caregivers. Furthermore, considening the different relationship to the patient, different culture background and different types of dementia, there are different problems in care. Based on comprehensive assessments on the demented and the caregiver, specific health education and other assistant services may improve both the mental and physical health of the caregivers, and reduce the disease burden due to dementia.
Caregivers ; psychology ; Dementia ; nursing ; Health Education ; Humans ; Stress, Psychological

PURPOSE: This research was conducted to identify the effects of providing support programs to families of elderly with dementia on family empowerment and attitudes toward dementia. METHODS: A nonequivalent control group pre- and post-test design was used. Participants were 49 family caregivers, experimental (24) and control (25), recruited from families through a dementia support center in Y district. This program implemented Haearim, a support program for family caregivers of demented elders developed by the National Institute of Dementia in 2016. Outcome measures were empowerment and attitudes toward to dementia. Data were analyzed with a χ2-test, independent t-test, Fisher's exact probability test, paired t-test, and repeated measures ANOVA with SPSS/PC version 20.0. RESULTS: Family empowerment (F=6.84, p=.002) and family caregivers' attitudes (F=16.48, p < .001) toward dementia in the experimental group improved significantly more than that of the control group after intervention. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that support programs for families of elderly with dementia are effective in positively changing empowerment and attitudes toward dementia among family caregivers.
Aged ; Caregivers ; Dementia ; Humans ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Power (Psychology)

Caregiver burden is a well-recognised global phenomenon. The primary aim of this review is to summarise the prevalence of caregiver burden and its measurement scales, predictive factors and impact in Singapore. PubMed® and Scopus® databases were searched using the key terms 'caregiver', 'burden', 'stress', 'strain' and 'Singapore'. A total of 206 papers were retrieved and 20 were included. This review showed that a significant proportion of caregivers in Singapore experience caregiver burden. Caregiving experiences and outcomes are affected by cultural, behavioural and socioeconomic factors. Being a Malay caregiver appears to be a protective factor for caregiver burden, whereas having negative coping strategies and care recipients with functional, cognitive and behavioural impairments are positive risk factors. As for outcomes, caregiver burden is associated with poorer self-rated health and reduced quality of life. Multiple instruments have been used to measure caregiver burden, and the Zarit Burden Interview is the most widely used.
Humans ; Caregiver Burden ; Cost of Illness ; Quality of Life ; Prevalence ; Caregivers/psychology*

Death and dying is an ultimate process that every human being must experience. However, in these days we do not like to think or discuss about death and dying. Actually, hatred and denial is the usual feeling when we encounter death and dying. Dying is more than a biological occurrence. It is a human, social, and spiritual event, but the spiritual dimension of patients is too often neglected. Whether death is viewed as a "wall" or as a "door" can have significantly important consequences for how we live our lives. Near death experience is one of the excellent evidences to prove that there should be spiritual component being separated from the human physical body when we experience death. People have called it soul, spirit, or nonlocal consciousness. Caregivers need to recognize and acknowledge the spiritual component of patient care. Learning about death and dying helps us encounter death in ways that are meaningful for our own lives. Among the several learning tools, utilizing cinema with its audio and visual components can be one of the most powerful learning tools in death education.
*Attitude to Death ; Caregivers/education/psychology ; Health Personnel/*education/psychology ; Humans ; Psychodrama

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore Korean mothers' experiences of caregiving for their adult children with schizophrenia. METHOD: A iterative descriptive qualitative research design was used to understand and explain the caregiving experience from the perspective of mothers. The data were collected by individual in-depth interviews and one focus group interview from 11 mothers. The ages of the participants ranged from 50 to 60 years old and the ages of their sick children ranged from late 20s to early 40s. RESULTS: Three major themes were identified from qualitative thematic analysis: (a) "emotional debris from the disease," (b) "the disease that makes mothers dumb" (c) "space of rational reason." CONCLUSIONS: This study would provide health care professionals insights in establishing intervention for mothers by deeply understanding the process of recognition and acceptance of their children with schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia/*therapy ; Mothers/*psychology ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Caregivers/*psychology ; Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore Korean mothers' experiences of caregiving for their adult children with schizophrenia. METHOD: A iterative descriptive qualitative research design was used to understand and explain the caregiving experience from the perspective of mothers. The data were collected by individual in-depth interviews and one focus group interview from 11 mothers. The ages of the participants ranged from 50 to 60 years old and the ages of their sick children ranged from late 20s to early 40s. RESULTS: Three major themes were identified from qualitative thematic analysis: (a) "emotional debris from the disease," (b) "the disease that makes mothers dumb" (c) "space of rational reason." CONCLUSIONS: This study would provide health care professionals insights in establishing intervention for mothers by deeply understanding the process of recognition and acceptance of their children with schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia/*therapy ; Mothers/*psychology ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Caregivers/*psychology ; Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors related to the wellbeing of the family caregivers of the elderly with a stroke. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 199 elderly treated in four oriental hospitals in Korea, and their primary family caregivers. The data was collected by interviewsand a self reported questionnaire, during the period from October, 2003 to April, 2004. RESULTS: The results of this study were as follows. The mean score of wellbeing of family caregivers was 60.6412.63. The factors related to wellbeing of family caregivers were sex, age, education, depression, illness severity, ADL, paralysis, and speech disability in elderly characteristics. Among family caregivers characteristics, education, relation, and burden were significantly related. In situational variables, family income and the previous relationship between the elderly and family caregivers were related to wellbeing. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of wellbeing was the burden of family caregivers. A combination of the depression of elderly and age of family caregivers accounted for 50.3% of the variance of wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS: On developing the nursing intervention for improving wellbeing of family caregivers, many factors should be considered, especially caregiver burden, and elderly depression.
Aged ; Caregivers/*psychology ; Female ; Home Nursing/*psychology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Questionnaires ; Regression Analysis ; Stroke/*nursing

PURPOSE: In Korea, most elderly with dementia receive care from family members, yet little research is available on the experience of dementia-related anxiety in middle-aged female caregivers for a family member with dementia. The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of dementia-related anxiety in middle-aged female caregivers for family members with dementia. METHODS: A descriptive phenomenological study was conducted. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit participants. Twelve middle-aged women (40-59 years, mean age = 51.90 years) who were family caregivers were interviewed from February 2014 to August 2014. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed using Giorgi's method. RESULTS: The essential structure of the phenomenon was a fear of losing self-identity. The main essence was represented by six components: keenly feeling the effects of aging because of memory deficit, continuous comparison of the family member's behavior with that of the participant's, Finding it painful to see a family member with dementia as he/she does not know how this will end, not knowing the conclusion of the disease process, reducing the risk of dementia, and trying to change one's lifestyle from what it used to be in the past. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides the essential structure of the experience on dementia-related anxiety that caregivers of a family member with dementia have. The findings could help healthcare providers and researchers have better understanding of dementia-related anxiety and give more attention to the caregivers to relieve their anxiety
Adult ; Anxiety/*etiology ; Caregivers/*psychology ; Dementia/*psychology ; Family/*psychology ; Family Relations ; Fear ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Self Concept

INTRODUCTIONThe care of children with cancer creates emotional and financial hardships for their families. There is a lack of information on the impact of childhood cancer on the family as a whole in Singapore. Thus, we set out to assess the financial impact as well as its psychosocial impact in our local context.

MATERIALS AND METHODSAll patients diagnosed and treated for cancer at the Departments of Paediatrics, KK Women's and Children's Hospital and National University Hospital, Singapore were eligible for this study. Families of these patients completed 2 self-administered questionnaires: (i) About-you and your-family and (ii) the Impact-On-Family scale. For the latter, the total score was obtained by the summation of all scores, where high scores correlated to high impact.

RESULTSSeventy-nine parents were enrolled during the study period from October 2008 to February 2009. Being of Malay/Indian origin was associated with a high overall family burden. On the other hand, being of Malay/Indian origin was also associated with most successful at mastery when a child was diagnosed with cancer (P = 0.001). In addition, when compared to caregivers who remained employed, those who were asked to quit their job, experienced a higher Financial Burden (P = 0.03), a high Familial/Social Burden (P = 0.05) and a high Personal Strain (P = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONChildhood cancer impacted family life in Singapore at many levels. In particular, the factors involved are various cultural discourses; employment status of caregivers; and those whose leave/pay are affected.

Adult ; Caregivers ; psychology ; Cost of Illness ; Employment ; economics ; Family ; psychology ; Family Health ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Neoplasms ; economics ; psychology ; Singapore ; Surveys and Questionnaires