Member Price: free to download Non-Member: free to download Author: Ruth Elvish, Sammi-Jo Lever, Jodie Johnstone, Rosanne Cawley and John Keady BACP Code: ISBN: 13 978-1-905114-38-2

Recent studies have provided promising findings about the impact of psychosocial interventions for older adult carers and carers of people with dementia. The aim of this review was to add to the substantive knowledge base by combining search criteria used by Pinquart and Sörensen (2006) and Gallagher- Thompson and Coon (2007) to update the literature on psychological interventions for carers of people with dementia published between 2005 and 2011.

Twenty studies were identified, doubling the number of studies that have been examined and synthesised into review literature since the review undertaken by Gallagher-Thompson and Coon (2007). Consistent with previous work (Gallagher-Thompson and Coon, 2007), three categories of psychological intervention were identified: i) psycho-educational skill-building (n = 8); ii) psychotherapy-counselling (n = 1); and iii) multicomponent (n=6). In addition, there were studies that the researchers grouped into a newly created fourth intervention category which was named iv) technology-based (n = 5). Whilst cognitivebehavioural approaches were a significant influence within the psycho-educational skill-building and multicomponent categories, the model underpinning psychotherapy-counselling studies also focused on the marital unit and the marital relationship as targets for change.