In America, most carers do not get enough help in time. This was the message from Professor of Human Development and Family Studies Steven Zarit, from Penn State University.
Professor Steve Zarit is a pioneer in the study of family caregivers. He has worked with states, federal agencies and communities to explore ways to mitigate family carer stress and to improve the lives of people living with dementia.
Steve Zarit is one of internally recognised experts supporting the Doctorate Training Centre on Improving Transitions in Dementia Care (University of Bradford).
On the 19th of June, Steve gave a fantastic public lecture about the types of support that family carers feel they need, and how they could be better supported. For example, Steve talked about family meetings in which several family members discussed how care was currently organised and how it might be improved.
Click here for the lecture slides
You can also download the audio of his talk here
The Centre for Applied Dementia Studies were then treated to a workshop about ‘The design and evaluation of interventions for family carers of people with dementia: new strategies for research’
You can find the powerpoint slides from Steven’s workshop if you click here
Steve’s work was particularly interesting to me as I have an interest in family carers. See my previous blog post on ‘How do older people work out care for themselves, and what can we learn by speaking with multiple family members?’
What was really interesting was how not only we can understand more about how multiple family members support one another, but also given this knowledge, what we can do to support people with dementia and the multiple family members involved in their caring responsibilities.
Written by Dr Catherine Powell