Perceived support needs of family caregivers and implications for a telephone support service.

The purposes of this study were: to identify the perceived support needs of family caregivers of persons living with chronic illness (physical or cognitive) and receiving home-care services, and to describe the types of telephone services that would meet the expressed needs of caregivers. The qualitative design used semi-structured interviews. A total of 34 caregivers (mean age 62 years) participated in the study. The care recipients (mean age …