Suicidal ideation in family carers of people with dementia: A pilot study

View/ Open
Author(s)
O'Dwyer, Siobhan T
Moyle, Wendy
Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie
De Leo, Diego
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective The objective of this pilot study was to gather preliminary evidence on suicidal ideation in family carers of people with dementia. Methods An online, cross-sectional survey was conducted with 120 family carers, the majority of whom were located in Australia and USA. The survey included measures of suicidality, self-efficacy, physical health, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, optimism, caregiver burden, coping strategies and social support. Results Twenty-six percent of carers had contemplated suicide more than once in the previous year. Only half of these had ever told someone they might commit suicide and almost ...
View more >Objective The objective of this pilot study was to gather preliminary evidence on suicidal ideation in family carers of people with dementia. Methods An online, cross-sectional survey was conducted with 120 family carers, the majority of whom were located in Australia and USA. The survey included measures of suicidality, self-efficacy, physical health, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, optimism, caregiver burden, coping strategies and social support. Results Twenty-six percent of carers had contemplated suicide more than once in the previous year. Only half of these had ever told someone they might commit suicide and almost 30% said they were likely to attempt suicide in the future. Carers who had contemplated suicide had poorer mental health, lower self-efficacy for community support service use and greater use of dysfunctional coping strategies than those who had not. In a logistic regression, only depression predicted the presence of suicidal thoughts. Conclusions A significant number of people might contemplate suicide while caring for a family member with dementia. Although more research is required to confirm this finding, there are clear implications for policy and clinical practice in terms of identifying and supporting carers who are already contemplating suicide.
View less >
View more >Objective The objective of this pilot study was to gather preliminary evidence on suicidal ideation in family carers of people with dementia. Methods An online, cross-sectional survey was conducted with 120 family carers, the majority of whom were located in Australia and USA. The survey included measures of suicidality, self-efficacy, physical health, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, optimism, caregiver burden, coping strategies and social support. Results Twenty-six percent of carers had contemplated suicide more than once in the previous year. Only half of these had ever told someone they might commit suicide and almost 30% said they were likely to attempt suicide in the future. Carers who had contemplated suicide had poorer mental health, lower self-efficacy for community support service use and greater use of dysfunctional coping strategies than those who had not. In a logistic regression, only depression predicted the presence of suicidal thoughts. Conclusions A significant number of people might contemplate suicide while caring for a family member with dementia. Although more research is required to confirm this finding, there are clear implications for policy and clinical practice in terms of identifying and supporting carers who are already contemplating suicide.
View less >
Journal Title
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
Volume
28
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is a preprint of an article published in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Vol. 28(11), 2013, pp. 1182-1188. The definitive version is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
Subject
Clinical sciences
Aged care nursing
Cognitive and computational psychology
Health services and systems
Clinical and health psychology