Authors

  1. Szulecki, Diane Editor

Article Content

On this month's cover, a family caregiver offers assistance as her family member uses a walker to help stand from a chair. It's a familiar scene in homes across the country: there are nearly 40 million family caregivers in the United States, according to a 2015 study by the AARP Public Policy Institute, a majority of whom assist with at least one activity of daily living. The most common of these is helping a family member get in and out of bed or a chair.

  
Figure. On this mont... - Click to enlarge in new window On this month's cover, a family caregiver offers assistance as her family member uses a walker to help stand from a chair. Photo courtesy of the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Most family caregivers (84%) say they could use more help with caregiving or information on caregiving topics. In this issue, we begin a new series aimed at helping nurses meet that need. As part of our series Supporting Family Caregivers: No Longer Home Alone, published in collaboration with the AARP Public Policy Institute, these new articles help nurses prepare caregivers to safely assist with mobility and are accompanied by instructional videos and informational tear sheets. To read the first article in the series, see "Teaching Family Caregivers to Assist Safely with Mobility" in this issue.

 

The previous articles in the Supporting Family Caregivers series and their accompanying videos-on topics such as discharge planning and teaching, and how to administer complex medication regimens-are available at http://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/toc/2017/05001.-Diane Szulecki, editor