ABSTRACT
There are currently more than 25 million patients with dementia worldwide, with 63 million expected globally by 2030 and 114 million in 2050, with the majority living in less developed regions of the world.1 In the USA, more than 15 million adults provide care to ill or disabled relatives,2 with informal caregivers providing 71 per cent of long-term care and 85 per cent of inhome care.3 The caregiving career is highly dynamic and evolving, and the kinship relationship between patient and caregiver is extremely important. Family caregivers perform an important service for their relatives and for society, but do so at great cost to themselves. Decline in cognitive abilities, loss of functional capacity, dwindling companionship and increasing demands of physical care and possible behavioural changes in patients with a dementing illness impose escalating stresses on family caregivers.4
