Similarly, telephone support provided by nurse educators for family caregivers has been associated with small improvements in caregiver problem-solving skills, mental health, perception of preparedness, vitality, and social functioning [ 19, 34, 35].
Informal caregivers are systematically screened for a broad range of possible caregiver problems.
For some doctors this makes it difficult to pinpoint caregiver problems.
In summary, admission to a nursing home is a threatening solution for all health-related and caregiver problems.
This teammate must be prevented from dropping out, and therefore the preventer focuses on solving caregiver problems in order to prevent excessive caregiver burden.
However, only a few studies have addressed how caregiver problems change during different stages in a cancer patient's illness trajectory [ 14].
Usual ambulatory mental healthcare is characterized by late detection of caregiver problems and unsystematic support that differs among the health services [ 11- 14].
Usual care offers many opportunities to support informal caregivers that remain unused because of the late detection and the ad hoc identification and management of possible caregiver problems [ 12- 15].
In a review of the literature on effects of caring for a patient with cancer, emotional and social concerns were the most identified types of family caregiver problems [ 14].
However, until now there has been little evidence of the long term effects of case management, for example in reducing or preventing caregivers' problems [ 22- 24].
The Dutch Alzheimer's Association ordered the Netherlands Institute for Health Care Services Research NIVELL) to develop a questionnaire focusing on informal caregivers' problems and support needs, related to the 14 problem areas formulated in the National Dementia Programme.
