Family Caregivers of Older Adults: Improving Helping Skills

Caregiving tasks reported by family members are summarized based on empirical, review, and service program reports, and a categorization of these tasks is presented. Reports of education and support programs for fmaily caregivers are also analyzed. Current evaluation data point only to benefits in short-term, affective domains of caregiving. Needed areas for demonstration and study to determine how programs can yield more long-term benefits include skills development, stages of caregiving, characteristics of persons likely to benefit, and empirically-based approaches to development and evaluation of education and support programs.