Coaching Family Caregivers to Become Better Problem Solvers When Caring for Persons with Advanced Cancer
Open accessAbstract
Family caregivers of persons with advanced cancer often take on responsibilities that present daunting and complex problems. Serious problems that go unresolved may be burdensome and result in negative outcomes for caregivers' psychological and physical health and affect the quality of care delivered to the care recipients with cancer, especially at the end of life. Formal problem-solving training approaches have been developed over the past several decades to assist individuals with managing problems faced in daily life. Several of these problem-solving principles and techniques were incorporated into ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life End), an "early" palliative care telehealth intervention for individuals diagnosed with advanced cancer and their family caregivers. A hypothetical case resembling the situations of actual caregiver participants in ENABLE that exemplifies the complex problems that caregivers face is presented, followed by presentation of an overview of ENABLE's problem-solving key principles, techniques, and steps in problem-solving support. Though more research is needed to formally test the use of problem-solving support in social work practice, social workers can easily incorporate these techniques into everyday practice.
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The transition between care environments can be a significant burden for family caregivers, especially for those managing complex illnesses at the end of life.
“However, the transition between care environments can be a significant burden for family caregivers, especially for those managing complex illnesses at the end of life. These caregivers face a series of new challenges and adaptation processes [9, 10].”
From Experiences of family caregivers of patients with end-of-life cancer during the transition from hospital to home palliative care: a qualitative study (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
The Overview of Advanced Cancer Family Caregivers (page not provided) says that caregiving near the end of life involves burdensome tasks, including transportation and care coordination. It does not identify transitions between care environments as a source of that burden. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe transition of family caregivers of patients with end-of-life cancer from hospital to home palliative care is a complex and challenging process.
“However, the transition between care environments can be a significant burden for family caregivers, especially for those managing complex illnesses at the end of life. These caregivers face a series of new challenges and adaptation processes [9, 10].”
From Experiences of family caregivers of patients with end-of-life cancer during the transition from hospital to home palliative care: a qualitative study (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
The Overview of Advanced Cancer Family Caregivers (page unavailable) describes demanding tasks and burdens for caregivers near the end of life. The section on adapting problem-solving therapy says caregivers take on more day-to-day tasks as illness progresses. Neither passage addresses a transition from hospital to home palliative care or attributes new challenges specifically to that change in care setting. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Dionne-Odom, J. N., Lyons, K. D., Akyar, I., & Bakitas, M. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
- Dartmouth College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dionne-Odom, J. Nicholas
- Venue
- Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-04-02
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 63-81
- ISSN
- 1552-4264 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-4256
- PMC
- PMC5410626
- OpenAlex
- W2345628298
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 2.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (R25CA047888)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Nursing care and research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Speech and Hearing › Problem Solving Skills Development
- Keywords
- family caregivers, advanced cancer, problem-solving training, caregiver burden, end-of-life care, social work practice, caregiver education
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Decision Making, Emotions, Family, Health Education, Health Status, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Neoplasms, Problem Solving, Severity of Illness Index, Caregivers
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