Your need for support - a person-centred intervention

In today's welfare society in Sweden, more people and people who are more seriously ill are cared for in their own homes, often until their death. Family members play a crucial role, frequently providing both care and support during the illness. Studies show that family members are often unprepared, and have a lack of knowledge, and that this can lead to negative consequences, such as psychological, social issues and ill health.

This project aims to study an intervention in specialised health care in the home, The Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool Intervention (CSNAT-I). The intervention has been developed in the UK and consists of two parts, a conversation guide and a five-step person-centred process. The conversation guide, which has been translated into Swedish and validated, includes 15 broad areas within which family members often express a need for support in relation to physical, emotional, existential and social aspects.

The person-centred process is initiated by healthcare staff, but is guided and led by family members who are given the opportunity to indicate what is most important for them at a particular time, and what can be helpful and supportive.

The intervention elucidates the family members’ support needs, both with regard to being able to support a person with a life-threatening illness and to improving their own health and well-being in their role as a family member.

Both nurses and family members of patients enrolled in specialised home care units participate in the study, which involves implementing and participating in the intervention. Data is collected via surveys and interviews with nurses and family members in order to enable evaluation of the intervention.

Your need for support - information brochure.

Your need for support - guidance.

The conversation guide and a document with information about how the intervention is being carried out can be found below.

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Social issues to work with in the future

Our education is linked to the UN's 17 global goals for sustainable development. These are goals that you can get tools to work with in the future:

U.N's global goals: Good health and well-beingU.N's global goals: Gender equalityU.N's global goals: Reduced inequalities

About the project:

Project group/collaborators:
  • Maja Holm, PhD; Kristofer Årestedt, Professor; Gunn Grande, Professor; Gail Ewing, PhD,
  • Susanne Lind, PhD
Time period: 2019-2024
Research area: Department of Health Care Sciences - Research in the main field of healthcare science
Project status: Ongoing

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Last updated:
4 January 2022