2016-17 MNLEND FELLOW PUBLISHES!

03/03/2017


Jack Reagan, current 2016-17 MNLEND Fellow recently co-published a brief based on the FINDS 2010 data surveying family caregivers. The data he analyzed within the FINDS survey focused on the emotional and physical markers affecting family caregivers. These markers have both positive and negative association to their related outcomes for family caregivers. He helped assess how caregivers reported their respective health status based on these positive or negative markers. Within the caregiver group, he focused on sibling caregivers for this brief. He looked at how the reported disability group effects reported health status, stress levels, demographics, and living arrangement.

Overall, the families that completed this survey indicated that they experience a large amount of total stress both physical and emotional. The most influential factors on the reported health status for family members were guilt, loneliness, physical fatigue, and costs of caregiving. Stress is only one indicator of the many markers that make up the negative effects of caregiving. In the future, it will be important to recognize the difficulties of caregiving in order to provide better family support. This report illustrates the need for improved services for families and it will be critical that we begin to provide basic mental health options for families to access.