Development and testing of an informative guide about palliative care for family caregivers of people with advanced dementia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Since people with advanced dementia are usually not able to make complex decisions, it is usually the family caregivers, as proxies, who have to decide on treatments and their termination. However, these decisions are difficult for the caregivers to make, as they are often inadequately informed and cannot properly assess the consequences; moreover, they are concerned about harming the sick person. We aimed to first develop an informative booklet about palliative care issues for caregivers of people with advanced dementia. Secondly, we aimed to investigate a change in family caregivers' knowledge regarding palliative care issues and caregivers' involvement in medical and care decisions before and after studying this booklet.

Methods

A first version of the booklet w

SUBMITTER: Riedl L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7068859 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature