Dementia Sleep Study

Do you live in the Greater Wellington region, or know someone who does? If your spouse or partner has dementia, do you have time to participate in Rosie's research?

This is an invitation to consider taking part in a research project. The project will trial whether structuring some daily activities can improve the sleep and daytime functioning of people with dementia and the partners who care for them. Click here to read more.

Groundbreaking New Zealand Research

The Carers Assessment of Needs Study, carried out by Dr Diane Jorgensen of Auckland University's School of Nursing during 2007/2008, is one of the largest qualitative studies about carers in the world. It was undertaken with help from national non-profit Carers NZ, which enlisted carers to participate.

Other non-profits also encouraged carers to take part so the study could accurately reflect who carers are, and the challenges of this large but invisible community of New Zealanders.

Click here to read New Zealand Informal Carers and Their Unmet Needs ... an article drawn from the study's findings, and printed in The New Zealand Medical Journal .

Carers Assessment of Needs Study (CAN)

Download Dr Diane Jorgensen's Carers Assessment of Needs Study. The exeriences of informal caregivers in NZ.

Complex Carers Group Research Report

Download the full Complex Carers Group research report, which grew out of concerns expressed by families in Auckland caring for disabled children and young people with significant needs.

In this review, informal caring refers to a type and/or level of caring not typical for other people of that age. Carers are predominantly women, and researchers have noted the social pressures on women to take on the carer role.

Societal changes toward more community-based care for disabled people may have increased these expectations of women to provide care.

Carers of children and young adults are usually parents, although siblings sometimes take on the caring role when parents are no longer available. In contrast, carers of older disabled adults are more typically spouses or adult offspring. Thus, informal carers are almost kin of the disabled child adult.

Non-kin typically perform paid, formal care tasks.

Elderly Pacific Informal Caregivers

This landmark study highlights the unique challenges facing elderly Pacific caregivers in New Zealand, especially when an older person is caring for a young person with a disability or illness.

Grandparents as Carers

Grandparents who are assuming full time responsibility for raising their grandchildren are an increasing phenomenon in NZ. Published by Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Charitable Trust.

Maori and Informal Caregiving

A background paper prepared for the National Health Committee by Adelaide Collins and Greg Wilson - Maori Development Research Centre