September 2002
Research and Teaching

Respecting both voices in Family Care

Dr Carol Whitlatch, a Senior Research Associate at the Margaret Blenkner Research Institute of Benjamin Rose in Cleveland, Ohio, recently gave a lecture entitled 'Respecting both voices in family care: Support both for the carer and person living with dementia' at the School of Health Studies.

The seminar was organised by the University's Division of Dementia Studies, the Bradford Dementia Group. The seminar attracted a range of concerned people including carers, practitioners and professionals from primary and secondary health and social care, educators and researchers.

The lecture discussed the regular practice of family carers making a variety of decisions on behalf of their relatives living with dementia. It looked at how clinicians, policy makers, and researchers often assume that family carers understand the care values and preferences of their relatives. Dr Whitlatch challenged the audience to question these assumptions and explored whether family carers truly understand their relatives' preferences for care. She questio

ned whether, when making decisions, carers weighed their own best interests against the best interests of their relatives and asked, 'Who is the consumer in these families?'

Dr Whitlatch and colleagues are currently engaged in a study of consumer choice involving interviews with African Americans and Euro-Americans living with dementia and their family carers. Dr Whitlatch presented preliminary findings that indicated family carers may be unaware of how important specific care values and preferences are to their relatives.

She noted that both family carers and people with dementia have each other's best interests in mind when making care choices - emphasising the mutuality of concern in dementia care. She discussed the implications of these findings for improving services for family carers and persons living with dementia and noted that dementia services and providers need to address the needs of two clients, needs which may not always be compatible. The seminar was part of the Division's on-going Dementia Studies seminar series.

The next seminar will be led by Claire Bamford on Monday, October 14 from 2pm until 3pm.

For further information contact Linda Fox on 01274 23(3996) or email L.J.Fox@bradford.ac.uk

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