Family members who care for parents or partners with dementia are twice as likely to suffer crippling grief following the person’s death than members of the general population.

A Queensland researcher is studying the responses and coping strategies of family carers following the loss of a loved one with dementia.

Patricia Shuter from Queensland University of Technology is seeking people who are caring for a spouse or parent in the severe stage of dementia or whose relative has died in the past eight weeks.

Through her research, she hopes to identify why dementia carers have an increased risk of experiencing severe grief and how to prevent it.

“People who lose a person with dementia [whom] they are closely related to have a 20 per cent chance of developing what is called “complicated grief” whereas the general population has an eight to 10 per cent chance,” Ms Shuter said.

“Complicated grief is found where people cannot get on with their lives more than six months after the death.

“They may have become isolated, lost interest in life or neglect their own needs. In normal grieving people start to feel they could be happy again and are able to resume their nomal life.”
 
Ms Shuter believes that complicated grief is more prevalent among dementia carers because of the accumulation of grief from watching their loved one decline over a number of years.

Her research indicates that carers of people with dementia do not receive enough emotional support while they are providing care.

“One woman told me that when her mother died everyone came with flowers and sympathy but she said she had needed that way back as her mother was declining and that no one had understood or acknowledged her grief at that time,” Ms Shuter said.

Ms Shuter said she hopes to study dementia carers who have resumed a normal life following the death of a close family member.

“I need to hear from people who have been able to come to terms with the death of their loved one and been able to move on,” she said.

“They can give me an insight into protective factors so that we can devise ways to help people who are caring for people with dementia.”

To take part in the study please phone Ms Shuter on 07 3138 3882 or 0439 569 372 or email p.shuter@qut.edu.au.