TY - JOUR

T1 - iSupport for Young Carers

T2 - An Adaptation of an e-Health Intervention for Young Dementia Carers

AU - Masterson-Algar, Patricia

AU - Egan, Kieren

AU - Flynn, Greg

AU - Hughes, Gwenllian

AU - Spector, Aimee

AU - Stott, Joshua

AU - Windle, Gill

PY - 2022/12/22

Y1 - 2022/12/22

N2 - Young dementia carers need to be recognised and supported in their role. They need help to understand the illness, what changes are expected and how it can affect their family member. Many support services, partly due to the COVID pandemic, have moved online and have been shown to be acceptable as they are low cost and reduce access barriers. iSupport is an evidence-informed e-health training programme developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to support adult dementia carers. This paper reports on the co-design of an adapted version of iSupport for young carers. A theoretically driven co-design approach, drawing on the lived experiences of young dementia carers and experts who work with this target group was followed. As a result of this study iSupport for Young Carers was created. It is the first e-health intervention of its kind and aims to support the mental health, knowledge and skills of young dementia carers. In turn, it could improve the quality of the support that service providers can offer, and this can result in increased levels of identification of these young people. The work presented also provides opportunities for other countries and demographic groups to translate and adapt iSupport for Young Carers to their specific cultural context.

AB - Young dementia carers need to be recognised and supported in their role. They need help to understand the illness, what changes are expected and how it can affect their family member. Many support services, partly due to the COVID pandemic, have moved online and have been shown to be acceptable as they are low cost and reduce access barriers. iSupport is an evidence-informed e-health training programme developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to support adult dementia carers. This paper reports on the co-design of an adapted version of iSupport for young carers. A theoretically driven co-design approach, drawing on the lived experiences of young dementia carers and experts who work with this target group was followed. As a result of this study iSupport for Young Carers was created. It is the first e-health intervention of its kind and aims to support the mental health, knowledge and skills of young dementia carers. In turn, it could improve the quality of the support that service providers can offer, and this can result in increased levels of identification of these young people. The work presented also provides opportunities for other countries and demographic groups to translate and adapt iSupport for Young Carers to their specific cultural context.

KW - Adolescent

KW - Adult

KW - COVID-19

KW - Caregivers

KW - Co-design

KW - Dementia

KW - E-health

KW - Humans

KW - Mental Health

KW - Telemedicine

KW - Young Carer

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph20010127

DO - 10.3390/ijerph20010127

M3 - Article

C2 - 36612450

VL - 20

SP - 127

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

SN - 1660-4601

IS - 1

M1 - 127

ER -