Do you care or have you ever cared for someone with dementia? How many hours do you spend caring for this person? How is your physical and mental health? These are some of the questions posed by a group of researchers from CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research in an online questionnaire (in Portuguese) addressed to caregivers or former informal caregivers of people with dementia.
Soraia Teles, Ana Margarida Ferreira and Constança Paúl (CINTESIS/Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences) are the researchers responsible for this survey that aims at collecting information about several aspects related to the delivery of care, namely, the needs felt by the informal caregivers themselves.
The team also wants to know if informal caregivers of people with dementia have access to some form of support or training, what is the acceptance of internet-based interventions, and what barriers, facilitators, and characteristics are expected in that type of interventions.
The information collected will be used to inform those who intervene in some way in the area of dementia -from health professionals and researchers to policy makers- about the current situation and the needs of support and training of informal caregivers of people with dementia, with a view to improve caregivers’ access to interventions that benefit them.
In Europe, 80% of the caregivers are relatives or friends. Im Portugal, it is estimated that about 200 thousand people live with dementia.
The questionnaire is confidential and anonymous. You can participate here.