Family Carers in Palliative Care

Peter Hudson is associate professor and the Director of the Centre for Palliative Care Education and Research, an academic unit located within St Vincent's Hospital, affiliated with The University of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia). Peter is a member of the Department of Human Services Palliative Care Implementation Advisory Committee (Victoria), Board member of the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care and co-founder of the International Palliative Care Family Caregiver Research Collaboration. Peter has a significant background in palliative care education and research, and has extensive experience as a palliative care nurse. He leads several competitively funded multi site research studies and has published widely in international journals. Professor Sheila Payne is an applied social scientist with a background in nursing. Over the last twenty years she has been involved in leading and contributing to research and teaching about research methods in palliative care. She has a special interest in end-of-life care for older people, family caregivers and bereavement support. She holds the Help the Hospices Chair in Hospice Studies based at the International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster University, UK. She also co-directs a large five year programme of collaborative research and development called the Cancer Experiences Collaborative. She has published widely in academic and professional journals, and is also Co-director of the Cancer Experiences Collaborative, and Vice President European Association of Palliative Care.

1. Communicating with famly carers ; 2. Understanding the social and cultural dimensions of family caregiving ; 3. Responding to family carers' spiritual needs ; 4. Policy initiatives for family carers ; 5. Family carers in resource poor countries ; 6. Family carers: ethical and legal issues ; 7. Assessing family carer satisfaction with health care delivery ; 8. Family caregiving in hospitals and pallative care units ; 9. Family caregiving in the home ; 10. Family and palliative care in care homes for older people life-threatening illness ; 11. Family carers of children confronting life-threatening illness ; 12. Family carers of people with advanced cancer ; 13. Family carers of people with advanced organ failure and neurodegenerative disorders ; 14. Support for bereaved family carers ; 15. The future of family caregiving: Research, social policy and clinical pratice