Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1990. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [206]-218).

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1996. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-73). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (MGeront) -- University of South Australia, 1994.

As the incidence of elderly-type illnesses such as Alzheimer's Disease continues to increase along with the elderly population in Canada, the particular health concerns and formal service needs of dementia patients and their caregivers are becoming more apparent and important to researchers, policy analysts, and ministry representatives. Institutional respite is one service that has been consistently underutilized by the Alzheimer's population, but little research has been conducted to determine the reasons behind why this is the case. As part of its Alzheimer strategy, the Ontario Government has promised to invest $7 million annually into respite services for caregivers. It is essential that these monies be used as appropriately as possible and in ways that best assist caregivers, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to include caregiver input in the processes of service evaluation, modification, and development. This study focuses on uncovering the issues that contribute to Alzheimer's caregivers underutilization of institutional respite, with the hope that this paper and like papers in the future will contribute to the development of more generous and more appropriate respite services for families caring for persons with Alzheimer's Disease. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Michael Gamel-McCormick, Dept. of Individual & Family Studies. Includes bibliographical references.

This study examines the utilization of a therapeutic summer camp for children with disabilities as a respite care provider for parents of camp participants. Interviews were conducted with nine parents, from seven different families of recent camp participants at Camp LIFE, a camp for children with disabilities located in Burton, TX. The interviews were qualitative in nature, and utilized Atlas.ti research software to guide the data analysis process. The findings centered on five areas: the daily life of a family with a disabled child, the respite needs of these families, the value of respite care in general, the value of respite as provided by Camp LIFE in particular (both while the child attended camp, as well as after the child returned home), the qualities of Camp LIFE that contributed to respite, and suggestions from parents for improvement of service provision. These findings suggest that, as has been found in previous research, raising a child with a disability is often difficult; however, this study found that none of the parents would opt to alter their situation, given the opportunity. It was also reported by parents that respite care is often hard to obtain (for a variety of reasons), but that it is a much-needed and desired service. In terms of Camp LIFE, the interviews showed that the parents did see the camp as a source of respite care, and that each family "did something" with the time their child was at camp in such a way as to maximize these respite benefits. This study is in agreement with an argument raised by previous research; that overnight therapeutic camps are a much-valued source of rest for many parents, and that without such respite, parents would report much higher levels of stress related to the care of a disabled child. Further research should be conducted which further examines the specific processes that allow parents to feel comfortable with obtaining respite from therapeutic camps, as well as research into ways to provide financial support and assistance to further the ability of these camps to provide such services.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed March 1, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-119).

No description available.

A qualitative study was carried out to explore foster carers’ perceptions of respite care and their perceptions of the psychosocial effects of this service for the children in their care. In order to achieve this aim an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach was utilised for data collection and analysis. This yielded six themes: carers’ perceptions being influenced by variants of the respite care environment, respite care being beneficial and necessary, concerns about agency provision of respite, factors carers attribute as contributing to its psychosocial effects on foster children, the observed psychosocial effects on foster children, and ways respite care could be improved. An additional finding was also reported, as foster carers’ views of fostering and their foster children appeared to be a modifying variable influencing carers’ perceptions of respite care. These findings illustrated that there are differential effects of respite for carers compared with foster children in some cases, resulting in a tension between meeting carers’ needs and the needs of the children in their care. Comparisons and corroboration of findings from existing literature is included in the discussion as well as the implications of these findings and future research directions.