Caring for the family caregiver

As a growing number of individuals provide unpaid care to family members, the impact of caregiving on the caregivers’ own health is being recognized as a public health concern. In actual practice, family caregiver assessments typically focus on the home care delivered and needs of the care recipient; assessment instruments that focus primarily on the family caregiver’s needs are less commonly used. Programs and interventions have been developed to help family caregivers cope with the demands of caregiving, but there is limited research regarding the effectiveness of these programs and interventions to improve caregiver (and care recipient) outcomes.