Carers and breathlessness

Farquhar, Morag ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7991-7679 (2017) Carers and breathlessness. Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care, 11 (3). 165–173. ISSN 1751-4258

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Abstract

Purpose of the review: Informal carers play a key role in supporting patients living with breathlessness in advanced disease, but with considerable impacts on their own well-being. The purpose was to review recent advances in our understanding of the caring role in refractory breathlessness, its impacts on carers, and interventions to support them. Recent findings: A systematic literature search resulted in 28 included papers that could be mapped to four broad areas of carer enquiry: the carer role (n=6), role impact (n=7), carer support (n=11), and carer views (n=4). Search terms focused on breathlessness, but few of the included papers were exclusively on breathlessness: most were disease-related, predominantly COPD. There were a range of methodologies, including four systematic reviews; UK studies were most common. Summary: Carers of patients with breathlessness take on a role characterised by uncertainty, largely unsupported by health care professionals (HCPs). HCP acknowledgement of these carers, their contribution, and the impact of the caring role, is lacking. The patient-carer dyad should be considered the unit of care. Carer intervention should be individualised, supporting carers as clients and co-workers. There was a dearth of studies recruiting via primary care, focusing on conditions other than COPD, and longitudinal work.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	carers,breathlessness,copd
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Promotion Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	13 Jun 2017 05:06
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 02:00
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63731
DOI:	10.1097/SPC.0000000000000281

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