Main description:

The vast majority of care provided to adults and elders with chronic illness is given in the home, most often by family members. The caregiver's role is daunting; caregiving is often referred to as a 'career,' requiring long hours and arduous tasks. Primary caregivers show higher rates of morbidity and mortality, and caregiving is a major source of stress and burden to caregiving families. Presently, very little support is available to caregivers from either State or
Federal agencies. However, awareness of this worsening problem is growing among health professionals and policy makers.

The Spectrum of Family Caregiving for Adults and Elders with Chronic Illness is written for individuals in the helping professions who are in roles that interface with or serve family caregivers who are supporting an adult or elder with a chronic condition. The volume includes eight disease-specific chapters written by experts from various disciplines. Each discusses the caregiving role and includes a thorough review of the literature on the characteristics of caregivers and
care-recipients, including related care needs, issues, and challenges unique to that chronic illness. Chapters also review the extant literature on caregiver interventions. An Evidence Table is included in each of these chapters so that the reader can easily judge the quality of evidence supporting the intervention
studies. Finally, each chapter includes two case studies describing common problems encountered by caregivers, along with descriptions of interventions used to address these problems. The final chapter summarizes the state of the science on caregiving roles and caregiver interventions and discusses the most relevant challenges and barriers faced by today's caregivers and caregiver advocates. This book will be valuable to clinicians and those in the helping professions, as well as academics and
researchers with an interest in the study of family caregiving and caregiver interventions, and to health administrators, public officials, and policy makers concerned with chronic illness care and management.

Contents:

Preface
About the Editors
Contributors

Chapter 1: Caregiving for Family Members with Chronic Illness
Louis D. Burgio and Joseph E. Gaugler

Chapter 2: Caregiving for Individuals with Alzheimer's disease and Related Disorders
Joseph E. Gaugler and Louis D. Burgio

Chapter 3: Family Caregivers of Stroke Survivors
Julia M. P. Poritz, Timothy R. Elliott, and Klaus Pfeiffer

Chapter 4: Caregiving for Patients with Cancer
Barbara A. Given and Charles W. Given

Chapter 5: HIV/AIDS Caregiving
Helen M. Land and Brooklyn Levine

Chapter 6: Caring for Individuals at the End of Life
Rebecca S. Allen, Hyunjin Noh, Lisa N. Beck, and Laura Jane Smith

Chapter 7: Family Caregiving and Serious Mental Illness
Helle Thorning and Lisa Dixon

Chapter 8: Caring for Individuals Suffering from Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain
Catherine Riffin, M.C. Reid, and Karl Pillemer

Chapter 9: Heart Failure and Debilitating Cardiovascular Problems
Susan J. Pressler, Miyeon Jung, and James Friedman

Chapter 10: Caregiving for the Chronically Ill: State of the Science and Future Directions
Louis D. Burgio and Joseph E. Gaugler

Additional Resources on Caregiving and Interventions
Index