Respite care for frail older people and their family carers: concept analysis and user focus group findings of a pan-European nursing research project

This paper provides a concept analysis of respite care for frail older peop le and their family carers. The authors re-examine the broader conceptualiz ation of respite care delineated by Nolan & Grant, namely, users' needs for information, education and support about respite care, based on a review o f recent literature and on a user focus group study. This work was undertak en by the Sheffield arm of the ACTION Project research team. ACTION is a 36 -month project (1997-1999), involving Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ire land, Portugal, Sweden and England and is the largest nurse-led project to have received funding from the European Union TIDE sector (DGXIII Telematic s Applications Programme, Disabled and Elderly). The authors discuss the ke y elements of respite and, more specifically, how they can be successfully used so that the potential of respite may be realized fully by family carer s. Recommendations within the context of the ACTION research project are pu t forward to enable family carers and the persons they care for to make inf ormed choices about respite care.