Do Family Caregivers Know Their Relatives Care Values?
Relatively little is known about how well family caregivers understand their relatives’ preferences for care. A growing but still sparse body of literature suggests that families have a general understanding of the importance of certain care values and preferences.6,11,12 But few studies have examined the views and care preferences of people with dementia. This means their views aren’t well considered as care strategies are selected.13It is important to acknowledge that family members and professionals often doubt the accuracy and consistency of impaired adults’ responses to factual questions and their ability to express care preferences.14 Yet research suggests that those with mild to moderate cognitive impairment-with scores between 18 and 26 on the Mini-Mental State Examination-are able to state consistent choices, communicate preferences for daily care, make informed care decisions,15,16 and choose someone, typically a family caregiver, to make decisions for them when they can no l
