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Social aspects of caregiving for people living with motor neurone disease: Their relationships to carer well-being

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2005

ANTHONY LOVE ,
ANNETTE STREET ,
ROBIN RAY ,
ROD HARRIS  and
ROGER LOWE
ANTHONY LOVE
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia
ANNETTE STREET
Affiliation:
School of Nursing & Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
ROBIN RAY
Affiliation:
School of Nursing & Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
ROD HARRIS
Affiliation:
MND Association of Victoria, Victoria, Australia
ROGER LOWE
Affiliation:
School of Nursing & Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
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Abstract

Objective: To investigate social aspects of caregiving for people living with motor neurone disease (MND) and examine their relationships to carers' well-being.

Methods: A questionnaire was developed to assess carers' perceptions of their social support network (the Caregiver Network Scale, CNS), including measures of sociodemographic status and general well-being (GHQ-12), and mailed to carers of people living with MND.

Results: Seventy-five surveys were returned (response rate: 33%). In univariate analyses, relationships between well-being and carer age, time as caregiver, and four subscales of the CNS were found to be significant. However, multivariate analyses combining their effects revealed that stress on carer social networks was the best single contributor to predictions of carer well-being.

Significance of results: Results indicate that prolonged caring for others living with MND has substantial costs for the carer in terms of loss of social support, which affects carer well-being and impacts ultimately on those living with MND. The CNS offers promise as a measure for screening at-risk carers; those who are distressed become candidates for professional intervention to help them cope better. Further research, providing validation of the scale for this task, is recommended.

Keywords

Social supportCaregiver well-beingLong-term caregivingMotor neurone disease
Type
Research Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 33 - 38
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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