scholarly journals Family Caregiving for Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 635-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Schulz ◽  
Scott R. Beach ◽  
Sara J. Czaja ◽  
Lynn M. Martire ◽  
Joan K. Monin
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Family Caregiving ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Care Recipient ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Intensity Of Care ◽  
The Impact

Family members are the primary source of support for older adults with chronic illness and disability. Thousands of published empirical studies and dozens of reviews have documented the psychological and physical health effects of caregiving, identified caregivers at risk for adverse outcomes, and evaluated a wide range of intervention strategies to support caregivers. Caregiving as chronic stress exposure is the conceptual driver for much of this research. We review and synthesize the literature on the impact of caregiving and intervention strategies for supporting caregivers. The impact of caregiving is highly variable, driven largely by the intensity of care provided and the suffering of the care recipient. The intervention literature is littered with many failures and some successes. Successful interventions address both the pragmatics of care and the emotional toll of caregiving. We conclude with both research and policy recommendations that address a national agenda for caregiving.

Inspiring Poor Women to Empower Themselves

2020 ◽  
pp. 955-970
Author(s):  
Keitseope Nthomang
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Poor Women ◽  
Key Policy ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

Empirical studies on the impact of micro level intervention strategies on poverty among poor women in Botswana are lacking, yet women are a valuable asset for the economy of the country. Continued marginalization and disempowerment of women has become a serious problem which merit urgent attention. This article investigates the potential of the Grow Model in transforming the lives of 14 women who belong to the Kgopolano GROW Group in Molepolole, Botswana. Data was collected in May 2014 using primarily in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The analysis utilized both content and thematic approaches. The results showed how the Grow Model has inspired women to empower themselves and self-transform into productive and prosperous lives. The results affirm the strength of the GROW model in promoting empowerment for social change in marginalized contexts. Key policy recommendations recognizes the limitations of the GROW model and build on its strengths.

Economic Crises, Common Crime, and Penality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A. Brandariz ◽  
Ignacio González-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Oil Crisis ◽  
The Impact

The influence of economic crises on crime and penality is one of the fundamental issues in economic analysis of the punitive field, and the topic has been explored from various perspectives in a wide range of criminology theories. From a criminal-motivation viewpoint, economic crises are seen to favor crime-rate growth because of their serious effects of increasing unemployment, increasing in poverty, and generating inequality. Similarly, diverse economic approaches to penality (though not all of them, for example, law- and economics-based theses) hold that economic crises usually produce a rise in punitiveness and a consequent rise in incarceration rates. However, specialized academic literature has highlighted that the generally accepted view is far from accurate in all cases. Economic crises do not necessarily produce an increase in crime (at least not in all types of crime), nor do they always lead to an increase in punitiveness. Indeed, empirical studies about the effect of diverse economic crises (the Great Depression, the oil crisis of the 1970s, and the recent Great Recession) reveal an ambiguous panorama of the evolution in crime and penality. The impact of economic turmoil on crime and punishment should be examined in all its complexity. Crime rates and incarceration rates are hardly correlated, and the latter are far more influenced by a variegated set of political, social, cultural, and economic forces than by changes in crime patterns themselves. To scrutinize the effect of economic determinants on the penal field, the analysis of economic crises and crime should therefore be separated from the analysis of economic crises and penality. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of academic literature and empirical data on the implications of pre-21st-century financial crises for crime and punishment. The recent Great Recession thus has great utility for delving into the consequences of periods of economic chaos on crime and punitiveness.

The impact of motivations and meanings on the wellbeing of caregivers of people with dementia: a systematic review

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Quinn ◽  
Linda Clare ◽  
Robert T Woods
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Care Recipient ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Dementia Caregiving ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Kin Relationship ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTBackground: The majority of people in the early and middle stages of dementia are cared for at home by non-paid caregivers, the majority of whom will be family members. Two factors which could have an impact on the quality of care provided to the care-recipient are the caregiver's motivations for providing care and the meaning s/he finds in caregiving. The aim of this review is to explore the potential impact of both meaning and motivation on the wellbeing of caregivers of people with dementia. The review also explores individual differences in motivations to provide care.Methods: This was a systematic review of peer-reviewed empirical studies exploring motivations and meanings in informal caregivers of people with dementia. Four studies were identified which examined the caregiver's motivations to provide care. Six studies were identified which examined the meaning that caregivers found in dementia caregiving.Results: Caregivers' wellbeing could be influenced by the nature of their motivations to care. In addition, cultural norms and caregivers’ kin-relationship to the care-recipient impacted on motivations to provide care. Finding meaning had a positive impact on caregiver wellbeing.Conclusions: The limited evidence currently available indicates that both the caregiver's motivations to provide care and the meaning s/he finds in caregiving can have implications for the caregiver's wellbeing. More research is needed to explore the role of motivations and meaning in dementia caregiving.

scholarly journals MEM AS A TOOL OF INFORMATION WAR

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-95
Author(s):  
Lidia Smola
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Information Space ◽  
Information Warfare ◽  
Mass Consciousness ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Impact

It is devoted to the problem of analyzing memes as a tool of information warfare. The article analyzes the history and origin of the study of memes as a phenomenon of information interaction and social technology. Memes can be interpreted as: image, idea, symbol, action, any cultural information copied by one person from another; the collective unconscious at the moment of acquiring verbal and visual form; specially created information message, which is distributed in the information space and is intended to form the necessary picture of the human world and make appropriate decisions. The meme influences the perception of reality and drives action. Different types, types of memes and their characteristics are considered. There is a diversity of spread of this phenomenon: global Internet memes, understandable to a wide range of people, and local memes that require specific awareness (gaming, hacking, scientific, professional). Emphasis is placed on the use of memes in contemporary armed conflicts. The information war, combined with the peculiarities of the modern information society, led to the use of new technologies to influence the mass consciousness, in particular, memetic weapons. The article analyzes memetic weapons as a technology of using memes for the distribution of beneficial information in the information space of the object of information confrontation. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of the perceptions of memes by ATO participants and volunteers. The urgency of the problem is determined by the need to analyze the impact of ideas reflected in Internet memes on the mass consciousness during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Within the framework of the Polish-Ukrainian project "Crisis Intervention – Support for NGOs in Ukraine Working with ATO Soldiers and Their Families", 20 flexible interviews were conducted. The focus of the study may be to analyze the perception and functioning of political Internet memes on social media. Empirical studies of the influence of Internet memes on the structural components of the psyche of Internet users are also promising. The war in eastern Ukraine reaffirmed the paradigm shift of modern warfare, demonstrated the thoroughness of a thorough study of the phenomenon and the need to develop entirely new approaches to the realization of political and military goals.

scholarly journals Online Leisure Activities for Sustained Mental Health Well-being in Older Adults with COVID-19 Mitigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 725-725
Author(s):  
Solymar Rivera-Torres ◽  
Elias Mpofu ◽  
M Jean Keller ◽  
Stan Ingman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Leisure Time Physical Activity ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Leisure And Recreation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Older adults (OA) experience psychosocial distress from the COVID-19 pandemic mitigations. While their participation in leisure and recreation activities (LRA) would be ameliorating, we do not know how LRA OA engages for their mental health (MH) well-being with COVID-19 mitigation. This scoping review aimed to trend the evidence on the types of LRA OA engage for their MH well-being across the young-old continuum (60-69 years) through to older-old (80 years and above) in the COVID-19 pandemic. We searched the following electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane, JBI-ES, and Epistemonicos for LRA studies by OA with COVID-19 mitigation. To be included, we considered empirical articles published in English on LRA of OA 55+ years-old. Another criterion required articles describing those activities' qualities and the impact of LRA on MH and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. We resulted in seven empirical studies, two of which implemented in the USA and one from the USA and Canada, Spain, Israel, and Japan. Findings following narrative synthesis revealed trending evidence on OA to engage in online LRA for social, cognitive /intellectual, and emotional health. Leisure-time physical activity reduced negative MH symptoms as anxiety and depression in OA under COVID-19 threat. In conclusion, the present review's trending evidence suggests that OA engagement in social, physical, mental, and cognitive LRA enhanced their MH and overall well-being. Activities delivered by way of the Internet and television provided a cluster of beneficial opportunities for the OA mental health needs under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social-Ecological Approaches to Health and Risk Messaging

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsty Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Extended Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Impact

Before health and risk messaging can have the best possible effect, there needs to be an understanding of what might influence health and associated risky behaviors. A wide range of elements needs to be considered, given the many possible influences on health habits and risky exposures. Since “ecology” is defined as the relationship between organisms and their environments, ecological models enable this consideration to be made. As a result ecological approaches have been widely used in health behavior, health planning, and health education. Ecological theory, with a communication focus, has also been developed, emerging specifically from the field of “information behavior.” Grounded in the work of Bronfenbrenner, on the experimental ecology of human development, the theory grew out of a study of older adults’ information and communication needs and uses, undertaken in the 1990s. The ecological model, as developed, enabled a wide range of personal and social influences on information seeking and communication to be explored with people aged 60 and older. Analysis of the impact of multilevel factors is facilitated by an ecological approach, increasing its value for the task of designing the content of health and risk messages. The “how” of designing health messaging is not addressed specifically by this approach. Following the study of older adults, the ecological model was broadened, modified, and applied to the study of the information and communication behavior of different community groups, involving a range of topics. The flexibility of the approach is a key strength. A study of information seeking, by women with breast cancer, indicated that several “ecological” elements, such as age, ethnicity, and stage of disease, played a part in the type of information sought and in preferences for how information was communicated. Health and risk avoidance implications emerged from a study of information seeking for online investment, providing another good example of the ways in which the model can be adapted. A range of ecological factors were shown to influence investing behavior, including level of risk taking. A study of people in the Fourth Age (the last stage of life) resulted in a further refined and extended model, as well as making a contribution to the already substantial body of accumulated gerontological knowledge.

Inspiring Poor Women to Empower Themselves

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-53
Author(s):  
Keitseope Nthomang
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Poor Women ◽  
Key Policy ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

Empirical studies on the impact of micro level intervention strategies on poverty among poor women in Botswana are lacking, yet women are a valuable asset for the economy of the country. Continued marginalization and disempowerment of women has become a serious problem which merit urgent attention. This article investigates the potential of the Grow Model in transforming the lives of 14 women who belong to the Kgopolano GROW Group in Molepolole, Botswana. Data was collected in May 2014 using primarily in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The analysis utilized both content and thematic approaches. The results showed how the Grow Model has inspired women to empower themselves and self-transform into productive and prosperous lives. The results affirm the strength of the GROW model in promoting empowerment for social change in marginalized contexts. Key policy recommendations recognizes the limitations of the GROW model and build on its strengths.

Understanding Burden in Caregivers of Adults With Dysphagia: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Daniella Rangira ◽  
Hiba Najeeb ◽  
Samantha E. Shune ◽  
Ashwini Namasivayam-MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Caregiver Burden ◽  
Social Life ◽  
English Language ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Care Recipient ◽  
Adult Care ◽  
Care Recipients ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

Introduction: A previous review suggested that dysphagia is negatively associated with burden in caregivers of community-dwelling older adults. Other literature suggests similar patterns of burden may be found across adult patient populations. The current study, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, was conducted to determine the impact of dysphagia on caregivers of adults, regardless of etiology. Method: Five electronic databases were searched using terms based on a review by Namasivayam-MacDonald and Shune (2018) but included all adults rather than only older adults. Searches were limited to English-language empirical studies discussing caregiver burden, included caregivers of adult care recipients, had some care recipients with dysphagia, did not include palliative care, and published in a peer-reviewed journal. Results: The search yielded 1,112 unique abstracts, of which 17 were accepted. Across studies, caregiver burden was found to increase due to dysphagia in care recipients. Commonly reported dysphagia-related causes of burden included changes in meal preparation, disruption in lifestyle, effects on social life, lack of support, insertion of feeding tubes, and fear of aspiration. In general, dysphagia-related caregiver burden was a common experience across caregivers, regardless of patient population, caregiver age, and relationship between caregiver and care recipient. Meta-analyses suggest 71% of caregivers of adults with dysphagia experience some degree of burden. Conclusions: These findings support that dysphagia negatively impacts caregiver burden and suggests sources of burden that clinicians can address within dysphagia management to support caregivers. However, more research is needed to better delineate sources of burden, especially those specific to various dysphagia etiologies, to better meet the needs of our patients.

Socio-Hydrogeology: uncovering the hidden connections within the Human-Groundwater Cycle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviana Re ◽  
Paul Hynds ◽  
Theresa Frommen ◽  
Shrikant Limaye
Keyword(s):  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Coupled Modelling ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

<p>Socio-hydrogeology has been recently proposed as a new approach in the field of human-water research, focusing on the assessment of the reciprocity between people and groundwater. Notwithstanding some obvious similarities with socio-hydrology, there are notable, and indeed important differences; while socio-hydrology aims to investigate and understand the dynamic interactions and feedbacks between (surface)water and people, due to the more private and local nature of groundwater in many instances, socio-hydrogeology seeks to understand individuals and communities as a primary source, pathway and receptor for potable groundwater supplies, including the role of (local) knowledge, beliefs, risk perception, tradition/history, and consumption. In essence, the “socio” in socio-hydrology might be said to represent society, while its counterpart within socio-hydrogeology embodies sociology, including social, cognitive, behavioural and socio-epidemiological science. Moreover, while socio-hydrology tends towards examination of human-water interactions at relatively larges scales via coupled modelling, socio-hydrogeology is often focused at a significantly smaller scale (e.g. individual household or community supplies), and as such, employs a wide range of mixed methods, including modelling, albeit to a lesser degree. Being at its early development stage, the discipline is still being defined and formalized. Nevertheless, several researchers are currently implementing this approach worldwide.</p><p>By presenting a comparative analysis of the approaches and outcomes from several socio-hydrogeological studies undertaken across a range of socio-demographic and climatic regions including Canada, Italy, India, Ireland, Myanmar and Tunisia, this presentation will highlight the benefits and shortcomings of going beyond classical hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical investigations targeted to assess the impact of human activities on groundwater quality and quantity, and indeed, the effects of these impacts on associated individuals and communities (i.e. humans frequently represent the issue, the receptor and the solution). By shedding light on the added value of understanding the cause-effect relations between people and the hidden component of the water cycle (e.g. to jointly assess how scarce and polluted groundwater affect human/social wellbeing), socio-hydrogeology can provide evidence-based solutions to regionally bespoke problems. Similarly, otherwise neglected local or regional information can add value to scientific outcomes and contribute to foster new groundwater management actions tailored on the needs of local populations as well as on the overall achievement of long-term sustainability. Socio-hydrogeology can therefore provide new insights useful for socio-hydrological modelling, and, together, they can effectively underpin successful Integrated Water Resources Management plans at local and regional scale. Perhaps most importantly, it is hoped that by initiating discussion between practitioners of both sub-disciplines, experiences, expertise and perspectives can be shared and employed (e.g. more “technical” modelling within socio-hydrogeology, increased integration of “non-expert” knowledge within socio-hydrology) in order to bolster both areas of study, with an overarching objective of protecting the entire hydrological cycle, and the people supplied and impacted by it.</p>

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