Individualised informal caregiver training for palliative care at home
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Feasibility study: Improving care-giver confidence in their ability to look after patients with palliative care needs, using focussed one-to-one training in the home.
IRAS ID
129942
Contact name
Bee Wee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Oxford University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Many patients with terminal illnesses rely on friends and family for much of their practical day to day care. These friends and family members often lack the skills and confidence to carry out these tasks and studies have shown that many would want more support. Studies have also shown that many patients feel they are a burden.
This study involves carers recieving training to learn the skills they need to care for their loved one.
Adult patients with terminal illnesses who are currently under the care of Sir Michael Sobell house Hospice and have a friend or family member caring for them are eligible to be referred for this study.
The training of the carer will be carried out by an Occupational Therapist in the patient's own home. It will involve 3 sessions over a four week period. The training will focus on goals that the patient and carer have chosen together. Each session will last 1 to 2 hours. The carer will be asked to complete before and after questionnaires and some will be asked to take part in interviews to see how they felt about the study.
The potential benefits of this study are to increase carer confidence in caring for their loved one.
The overall aim of this study is to test out the research method to see if patients and carers find this training and the outcome measures acceptable. If they do then we plan to learn from this study to design a larger randomised control trial which would be the best way of knowing for sure whether and in what ways this training is helpful.
The study is funded from Sobell House Charity and the OHRSC.REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/1104
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion