Supporting Carers in Oxfordshire During and After Someone Dies v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What do unpaid carers in Oxfordshire find helps or hinders their resilience when caring for someone nearing the end of their life at home?
IRAS ID
330841
Contact name
Samantha Gould
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Open University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 21 days
Research summary
Research Summary:
People nearing the end of life rely on the support of family and friends to be able to die at home. Health and Social care services also rely on these unpaid carers to provide a range of support to those dying at home. Health and social care services need to ensure that they are supporting unpaid carers adequately. Research into unpaid carer support is beneficial for unpaid carers, the cared for person and health and social care services. The research will examine what unpaid carers currently caring for someone think helps or hinders their resilience when caring for someone who is dying at home. This will build on previous research which tends to focus on the recollections of bereaved carers and how they coped rather than what impacted their ability to show resilience and continue to care.
The researcher will invite unpaid carers who meet the inclusion criteria and are caring for people receiving support from a Home Hospice Service (HHS) in Oxfordshire and South Northamptonshire to take part in this project. Interactions between the unpaid carers and paid carers from the HHS will be observed in the home of the cared for person. This is to explore the impact of factors not easily described in an interview such as the impact of the presence of the HHS or the impact of the home environment on unpaid carers resilience. Observations will take place during the visits from the HHS and the aim is to observe several times over the two-week period that the HHS is visiting. Unpaid carers will also be invited to take part in interviews whilst they are supporting their friend or relative and afterwards. Interviews will be sensitively planned to meet the needs of the unpaid carers.Summary of Results:
Support from family or friends, acting as unpaid carers, is fundamental to people dying at home and is relied upon by healthcare services. To do this, unpaid carers require resilience – the ability to manage significant sources of stress. Little is known about what impacts the resilience of current unpaid carers of the dying.
This project focused on those receiving support from a home hospice service in Oxfordshire. The research question was: What do unpaid carers receiving support from this service find helps or hinders their resilience when caring for someone nearing the end of their life at home?
Five female carers were involved in the project – they were interviewed, and observations of interactions in the home with hospice services were conducted by the researcher.
From this information, the project found that resilience is more than an innate feature of a person. The relationships unpaid carers have with belongings, spaces, and people impact their resilience. Being valued and recognised as people by health care professionals fosters unpaid carer resilience. Services can support unpaid carers’ resilience by recognising the importance of such relationships.REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/SC/0378
Date of REC Opinion
29 Dec 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion