Challenges Faced by Carers of People with Dementia: Research

This research proposal focuses on understanding the challenges faced by caregivers of individuals with dementia, a critical and growing issue in healthcare. The proposal outlines the research's background, rationale, aims, objectives, and research questions, emphasizing the impact on carers' emotional, well-being, and sociological states. The study aims to analyze the factors involved in research project selection, conduct a literature review, and develop a research specification. It explores the importance of planning and timescale for the research, efficient resource allocation, and the significance of the research in the healthcare sector. The research seeks to identify the challenges faced by carers, such as the need for continuous care, and the impact of caregiver service on the patient's regular life. The research will employ primary and secondary research methods, including surveys, internet research, and academic journals, to gather and analyze data, providing insights into the roles and impacts of caregivers in the lives of dementia patients, and the need for effective support systems for both patients and carers. The research also considers the practical challenges faced by caregivers in ensuring the safety and well-being of dementia patients.

Research Proposal

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Understanding formulation of a research specification...........................................................5
1.1 Formulating and recording possible research project outline specifications.........................5
Title: To know and understand the challenges faced by carers for people living with Dementia
......................................................................................................................................................5
1.2 Identification of the factors of research project selection process.........................................5
1.3 A critical review of key references........................................................................................6
1.4 Development of a research project specification...................................................................9
1.5 Appropriate planning and timescale for the agreed research specification.........................22
LO2 Implementation of the research project within agreed procedures and to specification.......24
2.1 Matching the resources efficiently to the research question................................................24
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................25
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................26
References......................................................................................................................................27
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Introduction
Research is the most sophisticated process science have ever invented to know the unknown and
gather deep knowledge about any subject. The whole process comprises data collection,
planning, data scanning, data analysis and proper interpretation of data. Researches are being
conducted to identify problems and finding solutions to those problems. To improve any
operation and work process, research is a mandatory part in current generation. Government and
non-government organizations depend on research results to make decisions about any of their
responsibilities. In this report, dementia disease and impact of caregivers on dementia patients
will be analyzed. Dementia is an acute brain disease and sometimes it is addressed as Alzheimer
as it is the majority case of the disease. The disease generally occurs from brain cells damage and
results in memory loss, deteriorate thinking ability which turns patient’s regular life difficult to
live. Dementia is considered as most critical and difficult to get rid and overcome. It is why
because there is no as such medicine available for this disease. The disease generally occurs from
brain cells damage and results in memory loss, deteriorate thinking ability which turns patient’s
regular life difficult to live. This present research will discuss the challenges faced by the carers
for people living with an issue of dementia. This research will focus on impact on their emotions,
well-being and sociological well-being.
Background of the research
The above research study will be conducted on challenges faced by the carers of people
who are suffering with an issue of dementia. Along with this, it will put emphasizes on an impact
emotion, well-being and sociological status. Dementia is generally referred to as syndrome
which is connected with range of diseases which directly put impact on the brain function of an
elders. It generally related to the language speaking, personality, attitude, perception and
cognitive skills of the suffering person. This kind of issue mainly found in the person above 60
years of age and also among the total population, almost 6.5 percent of the people are suffering
with this issue. This research will know and analyse the various challenges faced by the carers of
the person suffering with the dementia and impact of this disease on the person's emotion, well-
being and sociological condition.
Rational of the research
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This research is based on the challenges and issues faced by the carers of the person
living with dementia. It was noticed that dementia has put direct impact on the thinking ability,
behaviour and ability of the person who perform their daily basic activities and tasks. The unique
purpose of this research is to analyse what are the challenges and consequences faced by carers
of an individual living with this disease and its impact on an emotion, well-being and
sociological condition. This research will also put emphasizes on the area of learning and gaining
knowledge on this topic.
Research Aim:
To know challenges faced by carers for people living with the dementia.
Research Objectives:
This research consists of various objectives which is required to be answered for getting
common and complete conclusion along with recommendation for getting cure of the challenges
faced by carers of the people who are living with an issue of dementia. The research objectives is
as follow:
 To understand the concept of dementia and its causes & issues to the common person.
 To know the challenges faced by the carers for people living with dementia.
 To know the impact of caregiver’s service on dementia patient’s regular life
 To realize how can carers deal with such challenges and issues for future caring of the
dementia patient.
Research Questions:
 What is the concept of dementia and its causes and issues related to an individuals.
 What are the challenges faced by the carers of the people living with dementia.
 What is the impact of caregiver’s service on dementia patient’s regular life
 How can carer would deal with such challenges and issues for better services and welfare
of the dementia patients.
Significance of the research:
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The major significance of this research project is to realize the actual use of analysis
methodology and techniques to concludes the research topic on the basis of per-defined
analytical tools and techniques.
LO1 Understanding formulation of a research specification
1.1 Formulating and recording possible research project outline specifications
Title: To know and understand the challenges faced by carers for people living with Dementia
Planning and work segregation is the compulsory part of a research that ensures future flawless
research process. Proper construction of research project specification makes the research work
smooth and sound. Research process starts with gathering of knowledge about certain research
topic. Effecting planning then being set for the whole result to the publication of the result. Next
comes the most crucial part, data collection and sufficient quality data is must for conducting
research(BELL, 2018). Then collected data is being analyzed through appropriate research tools
and techniques. Research result need to be published to the internal and external stakeholders
and it should be presented precisely.
Dementia is a brain disease which creates severe problems in regular life as the patient loses his
memory, thinking ability and emotional response. In dementia, 50-70% time it appears as
Alzheimer which is a big part of the disease(Kaplan, 1996). According to specialists, dementia
results in language problem. Emotional complexity, frustration in life etc. in a patient’s body.
But, the doctors and specialists did not able to find a cure for the disease yet. Dementia patients
usually need intensive care all the time and ensuring this they can lead a quite normal life. In this
process, caregivers play a very important role. Most of the families of the patients have inability
to care a dementia patient properly. In this situation, trained caregivers take care the all the time
according to the patients need. In this research, the impact of caregivers on dementia patient’s
life will be analyzed. So, the key research question are-
 What is the impact of caregiver’s service on dementia patient’s regular life?
1.2 Identification of the factors of research project selection process
Justification of the research topic is necessary to ensure the research’s viability. Beside it helps to
find out the scope of the research and implement them effectively. In this research, the key topic
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is the caregivers and the living of the dementia patients. In the healthcare sector, dementia is a
very crucial part as it is increasing day by day. The disease creates basic problems to the patients
and for this they cannot communicate properly, remember previous memory and face acute
depression. According to medical science, if patients continuously face these problems they can
die further.
Dementia patients faces such acute problems but there is no exact medicine or process to cure the
disease. The best medicine of the disease is continuous family caring and companion. Caregivers
are being trained to do such kind of jobs and accompany such patients all the time. Caregiver’s
role is more important as the family members do not know all the needs of the patient and proper
treatment when patients feel sick. So, it is very important to realize the impact of the caregiver’s
service to the patient’s regular life and this is the motivation of the research.
1.3 A critical review of key references
The research of caregiver’s impact on dementia patient’s regular life will follow proper
references that make the research authentic. This step is important to retain the quality of the
research and formal presentation. The research will be done through primary research method
and secondary research method. The primary research will be done by questionnaire survey
where secondary research will be conducted by internet, educational journals, research paper etc.
(Fowler, 2014).
Whole research project will maintain information from books, healthcare organization, doctors,
government etc. All the sources of information will be verified for authenticity. The researcher
will assess the information before analysis and also crosscheck the data. The research outcomes
will be evaluated critically to ensure the proper implications of authentic references.
Literature review
The research will not be successful without proper literature background. The impact of
caregivers service on dementia people life researcher will gather appropriate knowledge from the
theoretical information. As mentioned earlier, primary research method will be used in the
research. Primary research method needs fresh newly collected data which is usually being
collected personally through survey or interview, said Berry (Berry, 2013). Another method,
secondary research method needs the data which is already collected by other organizations,
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government and internet data (McBurney and White, 2013). According to Glozman, caregiver
refers to person who benefits dependent or partially dependent persons medically or with
environmental resources. Dementia is a dangerous disease which makes patients helpless and
they need care like the caregiver service.
It is referred to as collection of symptoms that arise because of the disorder which affects
the functioning of the brain. This occurs due to the various combination which impacts the
mental situation of the person. If the people living with dementia are given positive view to their
life then it will help them to gain more energy and less stress that will lastly help them in
decreasing cognitive decline. People should be taken care with the mental and the emotional
needs so that they can generate positive view to their life. If the people who are affected by
dementia are engaged with their family members then it may lead them to resolve the problem
that arises to them.
Caregivers of the people with dementia are often called as the invisible patients, and are
also critical to the quality of life of the care recipients. The impact on family caregiver is
negative with having a high rate of burden and psychological morbidity as well as social
isolation with financial hardship . Caregivers roles are highly variable across the course of care
giving. As most of the time the caregivers involves the family members. These people generates
a impact on the life of people and helps them to live the life with positivity. These impacts are
basically positive but may sometimes reflects negativity while caring the people with dementia.
As people with dementia are taken care by family members it sets a positive mood for the
interaction among them. They feel that some one is understanding and listening to them. It has
been analyses that between 56% to 91% of the caregivers experienced a nd enjoyed the joy of
togetherness and sharing activities which accomplished the feelings of belonging and mastery.
As this disease is associated with giving long care hours and physical demanding care giving.
This help the people with dementia to remember the things that they have done and reducing the
future impact of this problem.
People living with dementia has to face different challenges that affects the living style
and the way of work that they do. Some of the challenges are straightforward to manage and
other can be seen as insurmountable these challenges can be categorized as practical challenges.
This is to ensure the safety and security of the people living dementia. Caregivers should
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analyses that patients should live in the home that is dementia friendly. The surrounding should
be kept safe and should include the signs that help them to lead the way when they forget about
something. The people who suffers from dementia becomes bored and lonely very fast they
should be kept up to date and care givers should create a positive environment that would help
them to keep their life interesting. They should be given some ways that helps them to finf the
ways to remain sociable. They also faces some physical challenges such as dealing with
incontinence as they have to maintain dignity. Carers has to manage bathing and dressing of
patients with dementia. The carers has to check and manage the eating habits of the patients and
have to encourage them to eat a balance diet. One of the main challenge that carers faces is the
emotional challenges. Aggression, boredom and loneliness are the challenges that they face
while suffering from dementia.
Caring for the person with dementia leads to increased rated of depression stress and
anxiety in carers with those related to non-carers. It has been analyzed that people who are caring
the person with dementia has negative impact on their physical health and feels a lack of energy.
This also results in impaired immunity and high levels of stress hormones in the carers. This has
also put the carers in the social isolation. Carers starts to generate a habit that where they give up
their hobbies and holidays and also reduces the time spending with their family members. For the
family members who perform the role of carers also have a significant impacts on the financial
problems that occurs.
It is seen that caring for the people with dementia may have both positive and negative
impacts on the carers. It has been seen that some of the carers feel the positive feelings such as
they generate the feeling of family togetherness, companionship and satisfaction of helping
others. It should be noted that mental and physical health impacts of caring for someone with
dementia are influenced by a number of factors such as availability of social support, type of
dementia and previous health of the patient. Carers in general have the smaller social networks
than non-carers and this can decrease over time. It was observes that people caring with dementia
reported that they had less support to the social isolation than expected from those non-carers. It
was researched that the economic condition that affects the carers have been estimated to be 55%
of the total cost of care in the human life. The cost of caring includes the time given to provide
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the assistance as well as any costs associated such as travel to appointments and payment for the
services.
There are many types of intervention that helps the to support carers to deal with the
problem that arises while caring for the people with dementia. The carers should be educated and
informed and should be trained to deal with the people who are suffering from dementia. They
should be educated about dementia, its symptoms, and changing the care needs. The carer should
be supported by skill training. There are various ways through which carers can be helped to
progress the therapies and the way that will make there mind to help the people with dementia.
Some of the ways include:
 Psychological therapies
 Case management
 Multi component intervention
 social support groups
 respite share services and many more.
1.4 Development of a research project specification
Step by step research process is designed by the research project specification by which the
researcher can finish the research timely. Irregular workflow and resource consumption cannot
make a research project successful. Researchers always stick to their plan and make sure their
objectives are being met. The processes of the research of caregivers and people living with
dementia is described below.
Data collection
One of the major part of any research is data collection and it has great impact on the analysis
and result. In this research, primary and secondary methods of research will be used. In this
regard, the researcher will make effective survey questionnaire and collect primary data by
conducting the survey, observation and interview (McNeill and Chapman, 2005). Secondary data
from internet, government data and other organizations will be collected accordingly. After the
collection of relevant data and information, detailed analysis will be done in order to arrive at
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the common conclusion and suggest the suitable recommendations. In my view point,
questionnaire for this research should be well-structured with appropriate and possible questions
framed and formulate with research aim in the mind. For the purpose of data collection, total
number of 40 respondents being cover with data collection by usage of questionnaire and
observations. Other data will be cover from secondary form of data collection through internet,
newspaper, magazine, journals etc. The main implication of entire data collection will be lies on
challenges faced by the carer's for people living with dementia disease and also its impact of care
giver's services on life of that person.
Methodology
Research project must need effective methodology of conducting research. Primary research
method and secondary research method is the most sophisticated method for research project.
The researcher will use these methods and also quantitative and qualitative research methods will
assist in different processes. The researcher also has knowledge about descriptive and intuitive
research. For this research project, descriptive research would be used and prefer because, the
research topic is too unique and comes up with answering the discussed questions and fulfill the
defined objective and aim of this research study. The major reason behind choosing the
descriptive is that this research project aims at understanding and analysing the impact of
dementia caregiver's in the life of the patient. Here, primary data has to be arranged for
understanding and analysis of the respondent's actual consequences and situations. Secondary
data has to be collected to arrive at the common conclusion on the research topic. In this
research, total number of 40 respondents are taken into the consideration from whom we will
recover the data and information for arriving at the common conclusion and results.
Ethical Consideration
While considering the research proposal researcher faced different kinds of issues and
conflicts that has a vital impact on the result and the outcome of the research. The major issue in
this is the confidentiality that arises abut the personal information of the respondents. So the
researcher should ensure that confidentiality is maintained while working on the questions that
are considered. These responses should be safely secured and should be procured in a safe box
custody. Cost and time of the research is considered to be the major issue and so the investigator
should create a time frame and appropriate budget so that they are able to execute the research in
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a proper manner. The activities of the research are considered to be done in best way so that it
can be completed with time.
Data analysis
Most important and complex part of a research is data analysis. In this regard, data need to be
screened to remove the unnecessary data. Then the researcher will collate the data into data
analysis tools. The researcher will use MS Excel in this purpose and different techniques will be
applied to perform different analysis (BELL, 2018). The results will be presented by the same
software. Along with analysis, interpretation will be shown with table and specific graph to get
common results and conclusion on this research topic. The data analysis will be perform by excel
and other tools to know and analyse the relevancy of the data and information to be collected. In
this research study, the data analysis will be carried on minimum 40 respondents taking as the
initial base of data collection from the respondents.
Sampling technique:
This type of technique is relevant to understand the convenience to perform the research
project. Sampling techniques can be categorized into: probabilistic and non-probabilistic
sampling to analyse which is the best suitable method opt to arrive at the common results. As
part of the discussion, probabilistic sampling involves random sampling which can be considered
as most appropriate research technique. Whereas non-probabilistic sampling involves
convenience technique which helpful to locate the respondents in most appropriate and efficient
manner. In this current research, convenient sampling will be used to cover total 40 respondents
to reach at the common results and conclusions.
Reliability & validity:
This is a important part of every research project which shows that whether data or
information collected is relevant and accurate, so as to take final decision to arrive at the
common conclusion and suggest appropriate recommendation. Here, researcher is responsible for
the selection of most reliable methods for the data collection and analyse of an information with
appropriate evidence and supportable documentation. This part of the research is helpful in
drawing the valid and genuine conclusion.
Limitation:
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There are various limitations which can be faced during a conduction of this research. It
can be limited time, lack of real and suitable resources along with the financial factors. Lack of
people response, improper questionnaire and other behavioural factors during the data collection
time and duration. In response to this, all these limitations are required to overcome in pre-start
stage of this research study. It also important to know the suitability and relevance of the data
and information.
Overcoming limitation:
In this research topic, various limitation like financial crisis and manpower requirement
can be overcome by making an effective and proper budgeting tool to ascertain the actual need of
the funds with allocation of the manpower. Good behaviour and attitude is required to gain the
respondents confidence and belief to take response of the questionnaire.
Ethical consideration:
Loyalty, honesty, trust and truthfulness are being taken into consideration to conduct the
research more ethically and confidentially. Apart from this, this will put emphasize to follow
legislation and laws accurately and properly to maintain feasibility and actual reality of the data.
Also the people connected with this projects are well-trained and motivated to conduct the
research on the entire level.
Theme 1: Awareness about Dementia in people.
Q1. Does people know about the disease
Dementia?
Frequency
Yes 25
No 15
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