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IJERPH
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The Mental Well-Being of Caregivers: Impacts, Benefits and Advancements
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The Mental Well-Being of Caregivers: Impacts, Benefits and Advancements

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Behavioral and Mental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 3029

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Lawrence T. Lam

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao 999078, China
Interests: mental public health; child and adolescent mental health; mental well-being across the life span; behavioral and clinical epidemiology; medical statistics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing life expectancy of the global population, there is also a corresponding growing prevalence of chronic diseases in the population despite the rapid advancement of medical technologies. This has resulted in a significant increase in patients requiring medical attention and care. In many cases, it has also translated into an increase in individuals providing informal care to relatives and loved ones with chronic illnesses or conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a caregiver as “a person who provides support and assistance, formal or informal, with various activities to persons with disabilities or long-term conditions, or individuals who are elderly. This person may provide emotional or financial support, as well as hands-on help with different tasks”. Hence, a caregiver could be a person who provides care, assistance, and support to others, either paid or unpaid, in a formal or informal setting. Mental well-being has long been accepted as a complex construct that encompasses different domains, including a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Scholars in the field have proposed that mental well-being consists of two of the hedonic aspects, referring to the subjective feelings of happiness and satisfaction in life, whereas the eudaimonic aspect relates to the psychological functioning and actualization of the individual’s potential, capacity, and positive relationship with the self and others. In this Special Issue, we would like to explore the effects of caregiving on mental well-being, including all three aspects in the caregivers themselves and/or other aspects that are also related to the caregivers. These effects may have a negative impact, or on the other hand, a positive benefit to caregivers. As a public mental health measure, we are also interested in investigating efficacious and effective interventions for the advancement of the mental well-being of caregivers.

Prof. Dr. Lawrence T. Lam
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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2500 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

  • caregivers
  • carers
  • mental well-being
  • psychological well-being
  • burden of caring
  • caregiver’s mental health
  • positive aspects of caregiving
  • intervention
  • positive mental health

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1085 KiB  
Article
The Architectural Layout of Long-Term Care Units: Relationships between Support for Residents’ Well-Being and for Caregivers’ Burnout and Resilience
by Yifat Rom, Ido Morag, Yuval Palgi and Michal Isaacson
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21(5), 575; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21050575 - 30 Apr 2024
Viewed by 513
Abstract
With a growing need for long-term care facilities in general, and for specialized dementia units in particular, it is important to ensure that the architectural layouts of such facilities support the well-being of both the residents and the unit caregivers. This study aimed [...] Read more.
With a growing need for long-term care facilities in general, and for specialized dementia units in particular, it is important to ensure that the architectural layouts of such facilities support the well-being of both the residents and the unit caregivers. This study aimed to investigate correlations between the support provided by the architectural layout of long-term care units for enhancing residents’ well-being and for decreasing unit caregivers’ burnout and increasing their resilience—as layouts may impact each party differently. The Psycho Spatial Evaluation Tool was utilized to assess the support provided by the layouts of seventeen long-term care units (ten regular nursing units and seven specialized dementia units) for the residents’ physical and social well-being (five dimensions); a questionnaire was used to measure the unit caregivers’ burnout and resilience. When analyzing layouts’ support for residents’ physical and social well-being, inconsistencies emerged regarding correlations with caregivers’ burnout and resilience across the two types of long-term care units. Supporting residents’ physical well-being was correlated with increased caregiver resilience in dementia units, and with increased burnout and decreased resilience in regular nursing units. Layouts supporting social well-being showed inconsistent correlations with caregivers’ resilience indexes in dementia units, and with burnout and resilience indexes in regular nursing units. The findings underscore the role of the architectural layout of long-term care units in enhancing residents’ well-being; the results also highlight the possible unintentional yet negative impact of the layout on the caregivers’ burnout and resilience. This study emphasizes the need to identify and rectify design shortcomings as a means of enhancing residents’ well-being, while increasing the unit caregivers’ resilience and decreasing their burnout. These insights should be addressed when developing strategies and interventions for ensuring optimal care environments for all parties involved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Mental Well-Being of Caregivers: Impacts, Benefits and Advancements)
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10 pages, 324 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Anxiety Symptoms and Perceived Quality of Life among Caregivers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Amazon
by Rayanne Vieira da Silva, Manuela Maria de Lima Carvalhal and Daniela Lopes Gomes
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21(5), 545; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21050545 - 26 Apr 2024
Viewed by 662
Abstract
The relationship between anxiety symptoms and perceived quality of life among caregivers of children with autism was verified. To assess perceived quality of life, the Short Form Healthy Survey Item was used; perception of anxiety symptoms was assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory. [...] Read more.
The relationship between anxiety symptoms and perceived quality of life among caregivers of children with autism was verified. To assess perceived quality of life, the Short Form Healthy Survey Item was used; perception of anxiety symptoms was assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Eighty caregivers of children with autism participated, with 68.7% of caregivers being mothers. Of the total number of caregivers, 68.8% had a severe level of anxiety. Regarding perceived quality of life, they demonstrated greater impairment in limitation due to physical aspects, limitation due to emotional aspects, vitality, and pain. Caregivers with severe anxiety levels had a worse quality of life in the domains of pain (p = 0.012), social aspects (p < 0.001), limitation due to emotional aspects (p = 0.001), and mental health (p < 0.001). However, in the functional capacity domain, caregivers with a moderate level of anxiety had a better physical capacity score (p = 0.001). There was a negative correlation between the general anxiety score and the general physical (p = 0.029) and general emotional components of perceived quality of life (p < 0.001). It was found that caregivers of children with ASD have a high level of anxiety, which is a predictor of the perception of a worse quality of life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Mental Well-Being of Caregivers: Impacts, Benefits and Advancements)
21 pages, 419 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Potential Impact of Training on Short-Term Quality of Life and Stress of Parents of Children with Autism: The Integrative Parents’ Autism Training Module
by Nikoletta Mavroeidi, Christos Sifnaios, Ariadne Ntinou, Giorgos Iatrou, Olympia Konstantakopoulou, María Merino Martínez, Martina Nucifora, Ibrahim Tanrikulu and Antonios Vadolas
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21(4), 474; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21040474 - 13 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1501
Abstract
Parents of autistic children experience high levels of parental stress and low quality of life related to the demanding child caring burden they experience. Parent education and training programs are acknowledged to improve parental well-being and reduce parenting stress. In the framework of [...] Read more.
Parents of autistic children experience high levels of parental stress and low quality of life related to the demanding child caring burden they experience. Parent education and training programs are acknowledged to improve parental well-being and reduce parenting stress. In the framework of the Erasmus+ Integrative Autism Parents Training Project (IPAT), we developed the IPAT Training Module based on parents’ expressed needs, in order to improve parental quality of life (QoL) and decrease their perceived stress. Sixty-two parents from four countries participated in the IPAT Module Training activity. We used WHOQOL-BREF and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10 version) for QoL and stress, respectively, before and after training and a study-specific questionnaire to assess participants’ satisfaction. Parents’ QoL improved significantly in the environment domain and specific items, while stress levels remained unmodified. Training appeared more advantageous for parents with lower initial QoL and those whose child had been enrolled in a special education program for an extended duration. Parents were quite satisfied, in particular those with lower initial social relationships QoL. Larger studies including a control group are necessary to support preliminary evidence provided by this study, identify additional effect moderators, and disentangle the contribution of different components of the training. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Mental Well-Being of Caregivers: Impacts, Benefits and Advancements)
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