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Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The present study aimed at the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of six PROMIS® pediatric self- and proxy- item banks and short forms to universal German: anxiety (ANX), anger (ANG), depressive symptoms (DEP), Fatigue (FAT), pain interference (P) and peer relationships (PR). Methods: Using standardized methodology approved by the PROMIS Statistical Center and in line with recommendations of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) PRO Translation Task Force, two translators for each German-speaking country (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) commented on and rated the translation difficulty and provided forward translations, followed by a review and reconciliation phase. An independent translator performed back translations, which were reviewed and harmonized. The items were tested in cognitive interviews with 58 children and adolescents from Germany (16), Austria (22), and Switzerland (20) for the self-report and 42 parents and other caregivers (Germany (12), Austria (17), and Switzerland (13)) for the proxy-report. Results: Translators rated the translation difficulty of most items (95%) as easy or feasible. Pretesting showed that items of the universal German version were understood as they were intended, as only 14 out of 82 items of the self-report and 15 out of 82 items of the proxy-report versions required minor rewording. However, on average German translators rated the items more difficult to translate (M = 1.5, SD = 0.20) than the Austrian (M = 1.3, SD = 0.16) and the Swiss translators (M = 1.2, SD = 0.14) on a three-point Likert scale. Conclusions: The translated German short forms are ready for use by researchers and clinicians (https://www.healthmeasures.net/search-view-measures). Plain English summary: A multitude of questionnaires exist, which are not comparable due to different questions or no available translations. PROMIS is an initiative, which was funded by the National Institute of Health in the US, to build better, i.e., more precise and efficient questionnaires, which can be used and compared worldwide. The PROMIS questionnaires include paper-and-pencil short forms and computerized adaptive tests. So far numerous PROMIS surveys have been created using advanced methodologies. They can be used by health care professionals to assess different aspects of health and compare the results internationally. To allow for international comparability of studies using those questionnaires, they need to be translated. This study reports the thorough translation process of the US-American PROMIS® questionnaires measuring anxiety, anger, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain interference, and peer relationships in children and adolescents into German. The translation included researchers, children, and parents from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to ensure that the final German version is fully and equally well understood in all of those German-speaking countries. The article describes the translation process, so that the user can understand the translations and use them in an informed way. The translated German questionnaires are ready for use by researchers and clinicians. (https://www.healthmeasures.net/search-view-measures). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the link between young people's well‐being and the creative arts is strengthening, there is a lack of research which focuses on the roles that artists play to help teachers and parents engage young people in the creative arts. This paper explores the benefits of and barriers to artists working in education in six European countries (England, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Austria). Using the '5A's model of creativity' and a view of professional development taking place within 'landscapes of practice', the data were analysed in order to explain how creativity is operationalised in the different contexts. Our study highlights the need for policy at a national and transnational level to value the creative arts in order to help teachers cross boundaries and utilise the full potential of the creative arts in schools. Our study also highlights that further research is needed into how artists shape teaching and curriculum and how schools engage parents in the creative arts in order to build an evidence‐base relating to young people's positive mental health that can affect policy at these levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being the backbone of modern welfare states, the informal care sector for elderly people in need of long-term care is highly dysfunctional. The majority of informal caregivers are overburdened on account of their care-related activities, although an evolving market for support services directly aimed at relieving informal caregivers is observable. In this paper, we examine the reasons for the imperfect exchange between demand and supply in this market, applying the economic theory of market failure. Through a case study of Austria based on an empirical, qualitative survey of all direct support services and their suppliers on the national level as well as in three provinces, an understanding of this market's main players and mechanisms is derived. Thus, the authors determine that three different system types can be identified beyond the historical regional discrepancies. They illustrate the approaches to service provision for informal caregivers: centralized and public, laissez-faire and private, and a radically decentralized network for informal caregivers. Still, lack of information, social and psychological barriers, as well as high transaction costs, are identified which undermine the support service market for informal care. If the costs of the formal long-term care sector are to be contained despite demographic developments, better policy approaches will be necessary to overcome this challenge. In light of this, recommendations are derived to ensure a better exchange between supply and demand. By providing an initial empirical understanding and analysis of this market and its imperfections, the authors pioneer future quantitative research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim This paper reports the prevalence and its related sociodemographic factors of informal caregiving by underage children in Austria. The quantity and intensity of caregiving activities, the motivation for and effects of caregiving and how this differs from non-caregiving children were investigated. Background Young carers are a worldwide phenomenon. Due to methodological and sampling problems, little quantitative data are available. Design Cross-sectional, descriptive study. Methods Based on a random selection of 85 schools and 474 classes, a total of 7403 children aged 10-14 years completed a self-reporting questionnaire that asked for children's help in their families. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results In the sample, 4·5% caregiving children were identified. The average age of young carers was 12·5 years. Most young carers were female (69·8% vs. 52·7% in the non-young carers group). Young carers assumed more responsibilities (household tasks, general care and sibling care) than their peers. They showed a higher level of physical (e.g. headache 38·2% vs. 24·4%) and mental (e.g. to worry about 68·1% vs. 41·8%) adverse effects than non-young carers. Extrapolation suggests a rate of 3·5% young carers in underage children of 5-18 years in Austria. Conclusion Data on national level are essential preconditions to initiate support for young carers. Nurses can promote children's health and well-being through prevention of an inappropriate caregiving role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even if numerous children and young people are looked after by child and youth welfare, there are only a few scientific studies on the reasons for this support. The aim of this retrospective descriptive study was to examine the reasons why child and youth welfare was initiated. Therefore, administrative data, collected by the Lower Austrian Child and Youth Welfare Service, from the year 2021 will be presented. On the one hand, the frequencies of the different justifications provided by the social workers and, on the other hand, whether these are primarily based on problems of the parents/caregivers or the children are reported. In 2021, a total of 7760 clarifications of child welfare endangerments were initiated. The descriptive statistical analyses showed that the most frequent concerns were parental overload (49%), behavioral issues (10%), and difficult economic conditions (9%). Although a classification according to the caregiver or child level cannot always be clearly distinguished, there is a trend that in many cases (84% to 99% depending on the type of support) the problems lie at the caregiver level. Further studies are necessary so that the care of such vulnerable groups of people will be better supported by scientific findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐kin carers provide vital resources for older people living alone with increasing care needs, especially if they cannot rely on the support of family members. However, this kind of commitment presents numerous challenges throughout the care trajectory and beyond. To explore these aspects in more depth, a qualitative study was designed including a retrospective interpretation of interview data with non‐kin carers (n = 15) and additional in‐depth interviews (n = 8) with people who had cared for an older person living alone with no family nearby. Analyses of the verbatim transcriptions followed coding procedures and were supported by MaxQDA software. Our findings demonstrate that non‐kin carers had to negotiate personal boundaries continuously over the end‐of‐life trajectory to deal with the increasing complexity of care demands and overburdening situations. Following the older person's death, non‐kin carers were involved in funeral arrangements and settled practical or legal matters when no family members were available or had little inclination to contribute. The findings highlight that non‐kin carers make a great effort to safeguard the interests and needs of older people living alone, ensuring their autonomy and dignity towards the end of life and beyond. However, the burdens experienced require future research to better understand the support needs of non‐kin carers providing end‐of‐life care for an older person living alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Longer life expectancy and changes in family patterns in Western societies have increased the need for professional caregivers to the elderly. A detailed understanding of job resources, especially of job control, may help preserve eldercare workers' work-related well-being. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to determine optimal levels of job control for eldercare workers' work-related well-being. Design: Cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) data were used to assess the linear and non-linear relations between job control and eldercare workers' work-related well-being. As indicators of well-being, irritation was examined cross-sectionally, whereas burnout and engagement were used in the longitudinal study. In both studies, demographic variables and time pressure were included as controls. In Study 2, results were additionally controlled for baseline levels of the outcome variables. Participants: Study participants were recruited from the nursing staff of 10 publicly ?nanced nursing homes for the elderly (Study 1) and from 18 privately and 20 publicly ?nanced nursing homes for the elderly (Study 2). In both studies, eldercare workers (i.e., registered nurses, orderlies, and nursing assistants) were invited to answer paper-pencil questionnaires. In Study 1, 606 persons followed this invitation (response rate: 65%). In Study 2, 591 persons provided data on both measurement points (response rate: 35% of Time 1 participants). The samples of both studies were predominantly female and between 20 and 65 years of age. Methods: Hierarchical multiple regressions with linear and quadratic terms were conducted. Results: Curvilinear effects of job control were found in both studies. In Study 1, low as well as high levels of job control were associated with higher levels of irritation compared to medium levels of job control. The longitudinal data from Study 2 supported these results. Eldercare workers with higher and lower levels of job control reported a higher tendency to depersonalize care recipients and a lower tendency to feel dedicated to, absorbed by and vigorous at work than those with medium levels of job control. Conclusions: Higher levels of job control are not necessarily advantageous for work-related well-being of eldercare workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the spring 2020, measures introduced across Europe to limit the spread of COVID-19 included, among others, the temporary closure of borders. For Romanian and Slovakian live-in carers, this meant they were no longer able to commute between the Austrian households they work in and their respective countries of origin. Due to the relatively short cyclical rotas of 2–4 weeks, travel restrictions heavily affected cross-border live-in care between the three countries, which makes them a particular case for studying the effects of pandemic-related measures on transnational care arrangements. Drawing on media reports, relevant laws and policies, and interviews with representatives of care workers' interests, the article examines how live-in care as a whole and care workers in particular were affected by the pandemic and related policy responses such as specific travel arrangements and financial incentives for workers. It shows that while live-in carers were deemed critical workers and essential for the long-term care system, the inequalities and dependencies already existing in transnational care arrangements were deepened. Care workers' wants, needs and interests were subordinated to the interests of care recipients, agencies and sending and receiving countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ethical and legal issues are increasingly being reported by health caregivers; however, little is known about the nature of these issues in geriatric care. These issues can improve work and care conditions in healthcare, and consequently, the health and welfare of older people. Aim: This literature review aims to identify research focusing on ethical and legal issues in geriatric care, in order to give nurses and other health care workers an overview of existing grievances and possible solutions to take care of old patients in a both ethical and legally correct way. Methods: Using a systematic approach based on Aveyard, a search of the PubMed, CINAHL, and Ethicshare databases was conducted to find out the articles published on ethical and legal issues in geriatric care. Ethical considerations: The approval for the study was obtained from UMIT-The Health and Life Sciences University, Austria. Results: Only 50 articles were included for systematic analysis reporting ethical and legal issues in the geriatric care. The results presented in this article showed that the main ethical issues were related to the older people's autonomy, respect for their needs, wishes and values, and respect for their decision-making. The main legal issues were related to patients' rights, advance directives, elderly rights, treatment nutrition dilemma, and autonomy. Conclusion: Further education for professional caregivers, elderly people, and their families is needed on following topics: care planning, directive and living wills, and caregiver-family member relationships to guide and support the elderly people within their decision-making processes and during the end-of-life care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People with dementia and their informal caregivers get in touch with the healthcare system predominantly via contacts with primary care providers. Among these, community pharmacists have been denominated as the health professionals most accessible to the public. Communication with and counselling people with dementia and their informal caregivers present particular challenges to pharmacists. Aim: This study aims to research the challenges faced and strategies used by community pharmacists who deal with people living with dementia and their informal caregivers. Methods: Within the context of two workshops with 74 participants, 15 small groups were formed, each of which generated and discussed a small story. Fourteen of those narratives were reported, tape recorded and transcribed. In these 14 narratives, community pharmacists reflected on their experiences with people with dementia or their informal caregivers. The narratives were systematically analysed and interpreted. Findings: Among the main challenges reported by the workshop participants are the difficulty of identifying a person with dementia; the question of what appropriate communication is; the only partially successful networking with doctors, nursing personnel and support institutions; unsuccessful counselling; and the tension between the economic situation and the care for people with dementia and their informal caregivers. In general, strategies for dealing with people with dementia are characterised by uncertainty whereas communication with informal caregivers is well rehearsed and effective. Conclusions: Community pharmacies require possibilities to retreat for counselling as well as the possibility for pharmacists to take time for people with dementia and their informal caregivers in everyday pharmacy life. Reflective spaces for narrations about difficult situations provide relief for staff in community pharmacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Recreational camps for children are a helpful measure to cope with family illness. • Camps can also help to meet the needs of young carers. • Camp should be considered as an important cornerstone of support for this group. • But should also be a trigger for discussing more sustainable support measures. Recreational camps for children play an important role in coping with the illness of a family member. This paper aims to describe the experience of a young-carer summer camp in Austria from the perspective of the attending children who care for a parent with severe physical illness as well as their diagnosed and non-diagnosed parents who remained at home. Nineteen qualitative interviews with children and their parents were conducted and analyzed according to qualitative summarizing content analysis procedure. The findings show a familial decision-making process and the ambivalent expectations and feelings of the children prior to the camp. The camp itself is a place where children feel looked after and where they can enjoy adventure activities. It is also a place where they are among themselves and can make friends and talk about their feelings in a secure and private environment. During the camp, the remaining parents try to spend most of their time focusing on themselves and their partnership. The camp also gives the children a glimpse of another way of living with new freedoms that cannot be maintained when they come home. These findings indicate that camps can make an important contribution to addressing young carers' needs but should also initiate a debate on more sustainable relief measures for children with care responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for integrated, accessible and person-centred care for people with dementia to foster quality of life and facilitate life in the community has been voiced by health policy. Pharmacies have the potential to provide easily accessible information and support for people with dementia, caregivers and the public. The 'Dementia-friendly Pharmacy' programme aimed at re-orienting community pharmacy in Austria, focusing on stronger inclusion of professional counselling into core services. It followed principles of health promotion and person-centred care, aiming at empowering all actors involved, and at fostering quality of life. Methodologically, the programme was based on participatory health research, thus involving all relevant actors and consolidating their perspectives on issues related to dementia care. In the course of the programme, a workshop series covering topics relevant for dementia care in community pharmacy, as well as prototypes for small-scale projects were developed, and measures were taken for securing sustainability. Findings related to programme development and implementation encompass pharmacy staff's motivation to participate in the programme, counselling knowledge and skills development, experience with building community partnerships and cross-organizational development and sustainability. Furthermore, effectiveness of the programme has been established. These findings are discussed against the background of re-orienting pharmacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Children and adolescents with caring responsibilities are an uncontested reality in our society. Most are hidden from public view, and they perform a broad range of caring activities for chronically ill or disabled family members. The research literature has accumulated a comprehensive body of knowledge about young carers’ personal needs. However, knowledge and understanding are limited regarding the needs of young carers’ families. This knowledge can contribute to preventing children and adolescents from assuming inappropriate caring roles. A qualitative research approach was used to investigate the needs of young carers’ families in terms of managing daily caring demands. Nine family interviews were conducted with 34 individuals including 15 young carers during spring/summer 2015 in eastern Austria. Open and axial coding procedures and constant comparison method were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that young carers’ families need to live in accordance with their inherent family logic. Family logic is generated and maintained via (i) family reciprocity that involves the natural help within the family, (ii) individual developmental space that allows family members to be perceived and act as individuals and (iii) network cooperation that offers formal and informal support and recognition from society in general. The findings contribute to understanding how families with caring children manage the caring demands of their everyday lives. The findings also indicate that formal support for families with young carers should consider the individuality of caring arrangements with respect to the holistic and personal needs and avoid stigmatising families that integrate children into caring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A growing number of older people are living in single households. They form a disadvantaged group within society as regards staying at home, most likely towards the end-of-life. It is mainly non-kin-carers who try to fulfil older people's desire for a home death, but very little is known about the challenges they face during their involvement. Aim: Getting insight into the engagement of non-kin-carers in the support for older people living alone, and a better understanding of the challenges they have to manage in end-of-life care. Design: Exploratory qualitative design; perspectives of non-kin-carers were collected through personal in-depth interviews (n = 15) retrospectively. Setting: Home care, urban and rural areas in Austria Findings: A slow and subtle transition into care is what characterizes non-kin-care relationships which show differences between friends and neighbours. Towards the end of life, the main challenges emerged around increased physical care needs, issues of decision-making and facing the process of dying. Prior experiences with the latter, which most of the involved carers had, influenced non-kincarers' steadiness to allow home death and so did reliable formal support, particularly from specialized palliative care teams. Conclusion: Support of older people living alone, in particular until the last stage of life, comes along with multiple efforts. Respectful and supporting relationships between professional carers and non-kin-carers are vital to keep non-kin-carers involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activities of daily living (ADL) of children are widely assessed with the Pediatric Evaluation Disability Inventory (PEDI). This study examined test–retest and inter-rater reliability of the German PEDI (PEDI-G). During the adaptation of the PEDI nine items were added. In total, 117 parents of 53 children without and 64 children with a diagnosed physical disability from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland participated. Reliability was examined by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM) and smallest detectable difference (SDD) for the Functional Skill Scale with and without added items and the Caregiver Assistance Scale. Cohen`s Kappa was used to calculate the reliability of the Modification Scale. All ICC's for test–retest and inter-rater reliability were above 0.75, indicating good to very good reliability. The SDD varied from 0.83–5.58 across PEDI domains and scales. For the Modification Scale, Cohen's weighted kappa varied from 0.25 to 1.00 indicating sufficient reliability for some but not all items. Our findings indicate that the Functional Skill Scale and the Caregiver Assistance Scale of the PEDI-G are reliable scales that can be used to evaluate ADLs of children with and without physical disability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is based on research on preschool childcare services and analyses the issues of its provision in Russia in comparison to Western and Eastern European countries. A micro-level cross-sectional data analysis of the first waves of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is performed. The results show that variations in using childcare services can be partly explained by the age and number of children in the family, mother’s education and characteristics of her employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study aim: This qualitative study explored how some working Austrians experienced and coped with changes in their daily occupations after becoming informal carers of persons who had had a stroke. The study provides insights into the working carers' occupational experiences and strategies during a period of pronounced life changes. Methods: Three participants, who were employed in full- or part-time work, as well as being informal carers of persons who had had a stroke, were interviewed on two occasions. The data from these interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analyses. Results: Carers found themselves in an ongoing process, ranging from the disruption of daily occupations to their eventual restructure. First, the stroke led to involuntary changes in the carers' daily life, which resulted in challenges in their own, and in shared, occupations. Second, carers actively changed their values and performance of occupations, which appeared to be a strategy to shape their well-being. Paid work was found to be a stabilizing and balancing occupation, which contributed to coping and the well-being of carers. Conclusions: The authors' findings demonstrate the benefits of paid work and engagement in meaningful occupation for the carers' well-being. These results should encourage occupational therapists to be sensitive to the complexity of the lives of working informal carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to increasing care needs, the reform or development of long-term care (LTC) systems has become a prominent policy issue in all European countries. Cash-for-care schemes-allowances instead of services provided to dependents-represent a key policy aimed at ensuring choice, fostering family care, developing care markets, and containing costs. A detailed analysis of policy documents and regulations, together with a systematic review of existing studies, was used to investigate the differences among six European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden). The rationale and evolution of their various cash-for-care schemes within the framework of their LTC systems also were explored. While most of the literature present cash-for-care schemes as a common trend in the reforms that began in the 1990s and often treat them separately from the overarching LTC policies, this article argues that the policy context, timing, and specific regulation of the new schemes have created different visions of care and care work that in turn have given rise to distinct LTC configurations. A new typology of long-term care configurations is proposed based on the inclusiveness of the system, the role of cash-for-care schemes and their specific regulations, as well as the views of informal care and the care work that they require. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High expressed emotion (EE) is common in caregivers of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and associated with poorer outcome for patients. In this study, we examined the prevalence of high EE in caregivers of adolescents with AN and analyzed predictors for EE using multivariate linear regression models. We further analyzed whether EE is reduced by the "Supporting Carers of Children and Adolescents with Eating Disorders in Austria" (SUCCEAT) intervention using general linear mixed models and whether a reduction of EE predicts patients' outcomes. Caregivers were randomly allocated to the SUCCEAT workshop (N = 50) or online intervention (N = 50) and compared to a comparison group (N = 49). EE and patients' outcomes were assessed at the baseline, post-intervention, and at the 12-month follow-up. Up to 47% of caregivers showed high EE. Lower caregiver skills, higher AN symptom impact, higher levels of depression and motivation to change in caregivers were significant predictors for high EE. EE significantly decreased in the SUCCEAT groups and the comparison group according to the caregivers', but not the patients' perspective. The level of reduction could partially predict subjective improvement and improvement in clinically assessed AN symptoms and body mass index of patients. Implementing interventions for caregivers addressing EE in the treatment of adolescents with AN is strongly recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]