Notes on family caregiving in acute and critical care

Abstract

Having spent more than 15 years of our careers observing patient care and communication in the ICU setting, we recognize the important role family caregivers play at the bedside of acute and critically ill older adults. Over these years, like many of you, we have also experienced the privilege and pathos of serving as family caregivers for older adult family members during hospitalization and at home. While this is a normal part of life and love and being in family, recent evidence points to the importance of re-examining what we mean by “family-centered care,” particularly in critical care environments, with the goal of preventing potentially detrimental long-term consequences affecting family caregivers of critically ill patients. Critical illness has immediate and prolonged psychological effects on family caregivers. This is true for family caregivers of ICU survivors as well as for bereaved family members of patients who die in the ICU. Post-intensive care syndrome in family caregivers (PICS-F) is a constellation of mental health problems, e.g., anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and complicated grief, experienced by family caregivers arising from and persisting for 1-year or more after a patient’s critical illness 1