| 209 8 positive experience of caregiving (67). These positive aspects of caregiving have been associated with fewer symptoms of depression (68). Despite these positive experiences, many informal caregivers report burden and depression (69). In Chapters 4, 6 and 7 we identified that unmet needs such as a lack of information, perceived lack of signposting services and person-centered care may contribute to informal caregiver burden. In addition, the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms and functional decline of the person with dementia may affect caregiver burden (70, 71). Addressing caregiver burden is important to support informal caregivers and in turn, empower them to support the person with dementia. Numerous psychosocial interventions to address caregiver burden have been developed and have been effective in reducing stress and depression and increasing subjective wellbeing, with multi-component interventions being most effective (72, 73). Within these interventions, focusing on the positive aspect of caregiving can foster resilience and coping ability. Even though effective interventions are available, informal caregivers do not always directly benefit from them. Chapters 6 and 7 in this thesis identified that whilst post-diagnostic support should be able to alleviate some of their burden it sometimes paradoxically does the opposite as navigating and accessing healthcare systems to receive support in the initial stages after a diagnosis was perceived as challenging and stressful. In addition, informal caregivers often experience barriers to using support to help them reduce their burden as they are unable to find relevant services, don’t trust services, hold beliefs about their caregiving role or don’t feel they are in need of support in the early stage of caregiving (74, 75). These findings emphasize the need to support informal caregivers in navigating the healthcare systems. To briefly summarize, informal caregivers can encounter both positive and negative effects of providing informal care. Interventions to address caregiver burden are essential to empower them but informal caregivers may encounter barriers to utilize these. The power of the social network Aside from formal post-diagnostic support, the social networks of people with dementia and informal caregivers are key in enabling them to live well with dementia as described in Chapters 2 and 6. Poor social networks are frequently
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