Development and implementation of a guide for professional caregivers to support family caregivers of loved ones with a life-limiting condition or frailty.
The goal of the project is to help generalist professional caregivers in nursing homes and hospitals to provide systematic support to family caregivers (including relatives and close relations) during the illness and after the death of patients with life-limiting conditions or frailty.
Many healthcare professionals do pay attention to family caregivers of patients with a life-limiting illness or frailty, but this attention is often random and depends on available time and interest of individual professional caregivers. The Support for Family Caregivers-method helps individual professional caregivers provide systematic care and support to all patients’ family caregivers during the illness and after the death of their loved one. This method was developed based on a literature review, an e-survey among healthcare professionals working in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices in the Leiden-Den Haag region, focus groups with professional caregivers and experts in the field of palliative care, and interviews with family caregivers.
The Support for Family Caregivers-method consists, among other things, of a practical guide with step-by-step instructions for systematic support and grief and bereavement care and an extensive background brochure on support for relatives and on the grieving process. Also, information was developed for family caregivers on self-care, on obtaining information and on support in the grieving process. This brochure can be handed out by the professional caregivers. Finally, the method includes information for healthcare organizations on the importance of the appropriate organizational preconditions for systematic care for family caregivers and on the education of healthcare providers.
The Support for Family Caregivers-Method has been implemented and evaluated in five nursing homes and three hospitals. Based on the evaluation, an implementation manual was added to the method.
It was funded by ZonMw (844001312).
