Title
The Decision-Making Journey of a Family Carer: Information and Social Needs in a Cultural Context
Abstract
While the important role of family as carer has been increasingly recognised in healthcare service provision, particularly for patients with acute or chronic illnesses, the carer's information and social needs have not been well understood and adequately supported. In order to provide continuous and home-based care for the patient, and to make informed decisions about the care, a family carer needs sufficient access to medical information in general, the patient's health information specifically, and supportive care services. Two key challenges are the carer's lack of medical knowledge and the many carers with non-English speaking and different cultural backgrounds. The informational and social needs of family carers are not yet well understood. This paper analyses the web-log of a husband-carer who provided support for his wife, who at the time of care was a lung cancer patient. It examines the decision-making journey of the carer and identifies the key issues faced in terms of informational and social practices surrounding care provision.
Year
Venue
Keywords
2008
CDM
cultural context,decision-making journey,family carers,family carer,home-based care,supportive care service,social need,health information,care provision,medical information,social needs,lung cancer patient,social practice
Field
DocType
Volume
Health care,Service provision,Information needs,Nursing,Social network,Medical knowledge,Cultural context,Health informatics,Medicine,Wife
Conference
176
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
0922-6389
1
0.39
References 
Authors
5
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Lemai Nguyen117617.41
Graeme Shanks226715.70
Frank Vetere31805143.63
Steve Howard418010.12