Assessment of the caregiver and caregiving situation is particularly complex because it involves:
- assessing individual psychological symptoms of caregivers (often below clinically-significant levels) and sometimes also assessing symptoms or psychopathology in care recipients
- understanding the demands which illness or disability impose on the family
- determining the circumstances which predispose the caregivers to having positive or negative experiences during the period of caregiving
Variables to be assessed:
The Situation
- Caregivers’ immediate questions, challenges and priorities.
- The family’s understanding of and approach to the illness/disability.
- The family’s caregiving stage in response to the progression of the illness.
The Context
- The family’s developmental stage (e.g., family with young children, late-life family).
- Individual family members’ capacities, personalities, and willingness to take on new roles.
- The family system, including structural and functional characteristics.
- Perceived fairness of the distribution of care responsibilities.
- The family’s previous experiences providing care to an ill or disabled loved one.
- The history and quality of the relationships between the care-recipient and other family members.
- The cultural and spiritual contexts for care.
- Perceived choice in providing care among those taking on caregiving roles.
- Motivations for assuming and remaining in the caregiving role.