Implications for practice and research

• As caring for a partner with dementia has a negative impact on caregivers’ health, supportive interventions need to be offered to active caregivers.

• Patients with dementia are less likely to receive palliative care, so these services need to be made more accessible to patients with dementia and their caregivers.

• Comparisons between dementia bereaved partners and non-dementia bereaved groups need to be extended to other bereavement-related health problems, including complicated grief.

Context

It has been consistently documented that caring for a family member with dementia is associated with multiple health impairments. Coping with predeath grief, providing end-of-life care and experiencing the death of the care recipient are particularly stressful, but …