Family caregivers (also known as "family carers") are "relatives, friends, or neighbors who provide assistance related to an underlying physical or mental disability for at-home care delivery and assist in the activities of daily living (ADLs) who are unpaid and have no formal training to provide those services.
New research even reports gains in cognitive function in older women who provide informal (unpaid) care on a continuing basis.
[10] This cross-sectional study tested over 900 participants at baseline and again after two years for memory and processing speed, functions which are necessary for many caregiving tasks.
At follow-up, those who were caregivers throughout the study had the highest scores for both cognitive functions but also the highest reported levels of stress, while those participants who were not caregivers at any time during the study had the lowest scores for both cognitive functions and the lowest reported levels of stress.
In contrast, subsequent research[11] has found that the benefit to family caregivers varies depending on the health of the person receiving care.
This indicates the stress and strain placed upon primary caregivers can greatly impact their health and ability to recover from illness themselves.
It can be as informal as sitting with someone while the caregiver runs errands to a more formal setting such as an Adult Day Service or even overnight stay in an hospital or nursing home facility.
[15] Information, resources and support are often available through senior centers and local public health departments, but more research is needed to determine what services are helpful.
The Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II intervention[16] was a randomized clinical trial that provided self-care educational information and training on self-care skills, tailored to each caregiver's needs, to the intervention group, or a basic health information packet and two non-educational phone calls to the control group.
At the end of the six-month study period, those receiving the intervention reported better physical and emotional health and less "burden and bother" with their caregiving duties than those in the control group.
Study participants were then evaluated for self-reported irritability, depression, anxiety, stress, and concentration, and asked to assess the chosen intervention on an ongoing basis.
This is despite the fact that the group that relied on round the clock migrant home care workers had lower physical functioning.