A Review of Opportunities and Challenges of Carers’ Support on Online Social Platforms

The purpose of this study is to investigate opportunities and challenges of carers’ support on online social platforms. We conducted a systematic literature review of 20 journal articles, and explored positive and negative aspects of online social platforms in three main categories: (i) Carer Wellbeing, (ii) Care Service, and (iii) Common Opportunities or Challenges. A Demographic analysis of publication year, country, user type, and research method have been discussed. The study uncovered that online platforms have a proportional amount of positive and negative impacts. We found that (i) the challenges guide us on how to educate carers and plan for uncertainties, and (ii) the opportunities shed a ray of hope on ways to assist the carers using online social networks. Results guide future research in mitigating challenges and strengthening opportunities for supporting and empowering carers on online social platforms

Development and application of a tool designed to evaluate web sites providing information on alzheimer's disease

Informal carers of people with Alzheimer's disease require access to high-quality information, which may be available through the Internet. Tools that have been developed to evaluate the contents of health-related web sites tend to be generic and not specific for diseases or patient groups. The aim of this study was to develop a tool that was specifically designed to evaluate web sites that provide information about Alzheimer's disease for informal carers of people with the disease. The tool was used to evaluate a sample of 15 web sites. The results were compared with those obtained using four generic tools in an earlier study. Several web sites attained high scores using the specific tool, although almost half of the 15 web sites achieved scores of less than 50%. There was a poor correlation between the rankings obtained using the specific tool compared with the generic tool. Web sites generally scored lower using the specific tool compared with one of the generic tools. Further work is required to develop and evaluate the Alzheimer's disease web site evaluation tool to help improve the quality of information available to carers through the Internet

Developing an instrument to evaluate the quality of dementia information website

With website becoming a major information source, consumers are likely to resort on website for information about dementia. They maynot have the knowledge or experience in distinguishing quality information from opinion pieces; therefore, the aim of this research Master project is to develop and validate an instrument to measure the quality of dementia information website. The aim was achieved by reaching four objectives: (1) identify the existing methods for evaluating dementia information website. (2) identify the existing methods for evaluating health information website. (3) develop an instrument to measure the quality of dementia website. (4) use this developed instrument to evaluate the 15 common dementia websites. Each objective was answered by one to two research questions. The literature review was conducted to identify existing methods to evaluate dementia and health information website. Based on the analysis of the previous methods and approaches to evaluate dementia and health information website, it was decided that the questionnaire survey is the optimal method for assessing the quality of dementia website for the public. Then the researcher obtained the representative criteria from the general health information evaluation tools, and specific criteria from dementia website evaluation tools as the candidate items to develop a dementia-specific instrument

Seeing the wood for the trees. Carer related research and knowledge: A scoping review

This NIHR-SSCR funded scoping review provides a comprehensive mapping of what is known about carers and caring, and aims to help inform policy, practice and research in relation to carers. The review was undertaken by searching 10 electronic bibliographic databases, supplemented by additional web searches to identify academic research, grey literature and wider knowledge. The analysis adopts a selective thematic approach covering: carer variables - the characteristics of different types of carer and different caring situations; types of care - the nature of needs of the cared for person and the features of the care situation; the impact of caring – resilience and coping, employment and health; and carer support and needs assessment. The final section highlights key messages identified from the review. It found that caring involves all sections and age groups of the population, with people are likely to experience one or more periods of caregiving over their lifetime. The uniqueness of each caring relationship is also highlighted. In relation to types of carers, knowledge about ‘hard to reach’ groups, such as BAME and LGBT carers, remains sparse. Older carers are also relatively invisible in policy and research terms. It found that much of the knowledge about carers identified in the review relates to their characteristics, their lived experience and the nature of their caregiving, with relatively less being known about the effectiveness of interventions to support them. The report concludes by offering suggestions for policy and practice. An appendix provides a bibliography of the 3,434 items identified in review, classified into 17 types of reference