Promoting the Health of Caregivers: Addressing Physical, Psychosocial, and Spiritual Well-Being Across Acute and Chronic Care Settings
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Community Care".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 April 2026 | Viewed by 5
Special Issue Editor
Interests: nursing; mental health/health psychology; communication skills and counselling; reproductive health; palliative care of children/adolescents and adults (cancer and non-cancer patients) with emphasis on care givers’ support; gerontological nursing; organ donation and transplantation; health care services management; research methodology (quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches, systematic reviews and validation/psychometric studies for research tools)
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to submit your research contributions to this Special Issue of Healthcare, titled “Promoting the Health of Caregivers: Addressing Physical, Psychosocial, and Spiritual Well-Being Across Acute and Chronic Care Settings”.
Caregivers—formal (e.g., nurses, allied health professionals) and informal (e.g., family members or non-professional individuals providing paid or unpaid support)—play a vital role in the continuum of care for individuals with acute or chronic illnesses. However, the multifaceted burden on caregivers often leads to burnout, compassion fatigue, physical exhaustion, and diminished spiritual well-being. These effects are especially pronounced in high-demand care contexts, including acute medical situations (e.g., intensive care units, post-surgical phases, stroke onset) and particularly in palliative care settings involving cancer and non-cancer conditions such as oncology, neuromuscular disorders, disability, and long-term care.
Thus, the aim of this Special Issue is to investigate caregivers’ multidimensional needs across a variety of settings and explore and promote evidence-based interventions, innovative models of support, and preventive strategies to safeguard and enhance caregiver health. Emphasis will be placed on palliative care in both cancer and non-cancer diseases (e.g., dementia) and on the specific needs of professional caregivers working in critical settings. We welcome contributions that advance the understanding of caregiver resilience and identify systemic solutions that fill current gaps in the literature.
Original research (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method studies), systematic reviews, case studies, and theoretical perspectives are welcomed.
Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Assessment of caregiver needs and burden across settings;
- Burnout, compassion fatigue, physical and spiritual distress;
- Resilience-building and well-being interventions (e.g., mindfulness, physical activity);
- Support strategies in acute care (ICU, stroke, post-surgery);
- Palliative caregiving in cancer and non-cancer conditions (e.g., dementia, neuromuscular disorders);
- Psycho-educational tools, digital aids, and peer support;
- Family-centered and multidisciplinary support models;
- Mental health impacts and interventions (e.g., anxiety, depression, trauma);
- Workforce-related caregiver strain (nurses, allied professionals);
- Ethical, policy, and system-level caregiver support solutions.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Thalia Bellali
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- formal and informal caregiving
- caregiver health and resilience
- holistic well-being
- burnout, compassion fatigue, and physical fatigue
- palliative and acute care
- neuromuscular disorders and disabilities
- caregiver support interventions
- nursing, allied health, and family caregivers
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
