EAPC Reference Group on Family Carers
EAPC Family Carer Reference Group Chairs
Peter Hudson
Chair
Director, Centre for Palliative Care St Vincent's Hospital & The University of Melbourne, Australia Honorary Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Clare Gardiner
Co-Chair
Senior Research Fellow, The University of Sheffield, UK
To contact the group by email please click here
Steering Group Members:
- Martin Loučka (Czech Republic) (EAPC Board Link)
- Deborah Parker (Sydney, Australia)
- Gunn Grande (Manchester, UK)
- Richard Harding (London, UK)
- Emma Carduff (Scotland, UK)
- Sheila Payne (UK) (Ex-Officio)
- Anette Alvariza (Stockholm, Sweden)
- Joakim Öhlen (Göteborg, Sweden)
- Jean Kutner (Colorado, USA)
- Betty Ferrell (California, USA)
- J. Nicholas Dionne-Odom (Alabama, USA)
- Kelli Stajduhar (Victoria, Canada)
- Aline De Vleminck (Ghent, Belgium)
- Erica Witkamp (Netherlands)
Membership of the EAPC Family Carer Reference Group is free and is open to individuals from all continents with a genuine interest in palliative care research related to family carers.
Background
The IPCFRC was established in 2006 to promote research into evidence‐based support for family carers of palliative care patients by fostering interdisciplinary and international research, establishing international partnerships and promoting information exchange.
The IPCFRC operates under the auspices of the European Association of Palliative Care and has been administered (“in kind”) by the Centre for Palliative Care (part of St Vincent’s Hospital and a Collaborative Centre of the University of Melbourne, Australia).
The IPCFRC was instrumental in the inception of the EAPC family carer taskforce (2010), and in 2019 it was awarded status as an EAPC Reference Group.
The IPCFRC EAPC Family Carer Reference Group is now also formally linked with the EAPC Task Force on Costs of Family Caregiving in Palliative Care.
Milestones
Since its inception in 2006, the IPCFRC has facilitated international collaborations and produced several key publications. The IPCFRC has over 300 registered members from 37 countries of the world, including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, Thailand, UK and USA. The IPCFRC has also enabled opportunities in the field by holding presentations, seminars and meetings at major international palliative care conferences such as the International Congress on Palliative Care (Canada). The IPCFRC has also held open meetings at nearly every EAPC congress since 2006.
Aims and Objectives
Aims:
- Promote the development of high-quality research and scholarship to improve the wellbeing of family carers supporting patients towards the end of life.
- Provide a platform for international networking and collaboration.
Objectives:
- Undertake relevant steps to transition to an EAPC reference group.
- Contribute IPCFRC related content to EAPC e‐newsletters.
- Apply to host a family caregiver specific research forum @ EAPC 2020.
- Publishing a manuscript on strategies to overcome challenges in family caregiver research.
- Develop a core set of evidence and consensus-based family caregiver outcome measures that will result in a toolkit to aid clinicians and researchers and also be published in an international peer-reviewed journal.
Institutional Collaborators
Institutional collaborators of the IPCFRC EAPC Family Carer Reference Group include:
- St Christopher’s Hospice, UK
- International Observatory on End of Life Care (IOELC), Lancaster University, UK
- Centre for Palliative Care (a department of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and a Collaborative Centre of The University of Melbourne), Melbourne, Australia
- The Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group (PCRC) – Caregiver Core, Denver, USA
Resources
Newsletter
Please click here to access the current IPCFRC newsletter
Caregiver core resources e.g. outcome measures & instruments
Available at: https://palliativecareresearch.org/corescenters/caregiver-core
For further information please visit https://www.centreforpallcare.org/page/105/ipcfrc
Relevent Publications:
Hudson P, Gunn G. (2020). “New EAPC Reference Group on Family Carers – The International Palliative Care Family Carer Research Collaboration (IPCFRC).” EAPC Blog – The Blog of the European Association for Palliative Care, 22 January 2020.
Hudson P, Zordon R, Trauer T. (2011). “Research Priorities Associated with Family Caregivers in Palliative Care: International Perspectives.” Journal of Palliative Medicine 14(4):397-401.
Hudson P, Trauer T, Graham S, Grande G, Ewing G, Payne S, et al. (2010). “A systematic review of instruments related to family caregivers of palliative care patients.” Journal of Palliative Medicine 24(7): 656-68.
Hudson, P., C. Remedios, and K. Thomas (2010). “A systematic review of psychosocial interventions for family carers of palliative care patients.” BMC Palliative Care 9(1): 17.
Payne S, Hudson P, Grande G, Oliviere D, Tishelman C, Pleschberger C, Firth P, Ewing G, Hawker S and Kerr C. (2010). “EAPC Family Carers in Palliative Care White Paper (Part 1).” European Journal of Palliative Care 17(5).
Payne S, Hudson P, Grande G, Oliviere D, Tishelman C, Pleschberger C, Firth P, Ewing G, Hawker S and Kerr C. (2010). “EAPC Family Carers in Palliative Care White Paper (Part 2).” European Journal of Palliative Care 17(5).
Hudson PL, Payne S. (2007). “Collaboration on research into family carers moves a step forward.” European Journal of Palliative Care 14(5): 218.
Hudson PL. (2006). “An international collaboration for family carer research.” European Journal of Palliative Care 13(4): 135.