Sustaining psychological wellbeing in working family carers
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Living well with dementia: Sustaining psychological wellbeing in working family carers
IRAS ID
203695
Contact name
Rachel Clarke
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, days
Research summary
This study is focusing on working family carers of a person with dementia. Enabling family carers to live well with dementia is a key UK policy objective. Whereas research efforts with regard to family carers who care for people with dementia typically seek to understand their caring experience, their relationship with the person with dementia, and the effectiveness of support interventions, this study proposes to focus on sustaining psychological health and quality of life for working family carers – family carers who remain in employment. The abolition of the default retirement age means that there are likely to be increasing numbers of family carers who face the challenge of sustained care and work. Although little is known about the profile of the increasing numbers of family carers for people with dementia who are combining work and care, or withdrawing from the workforce to provide care. This study will address this knowledge gap firstly, by asking approximately 30-50 working family carers of a person with dementia to provide information about areas which contribute to their: psychological wellbeing, their everyday functioning (i.e. basic memory and attention), and their work and life balance. This will yield numerical data that will be analysed statistically. Following this, in-depth interviews will be conducted with all working family carers to enrich the knowledge gained from quantitative analyses and further understand the factors which support a sustainable work and life balance. These findings will be complemented by a comparison of the factors associated with psychological wellbeing between a larger cohort of working and non-working family carers from the national ‘Living Well with Dementia’ project. In the final stage, all results will be merged to develop a model of sustainable work and life balance which assists in the development of services and support for working family carers in the UK.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0383
Date of REC Opinion
13 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion