Spouses of persons living with dementia both anticipate future loss and grieve for multiple losses occurring with caregiving and this ultimately influences their bereavement experience. Little research has been conducted regarding the bereavement experience in the caregiving journey with dementia and what does exist is mostly quantitative in nature. The purpose of this study is to describe the bereavement experience of spousal caregivers ( n = 10) utilizing Thorne's interpretive description. Thematic analysis revealed the features and facilitators of the bereavement process for spousal caregivers to persons with dementia. The unique contribution of this study to the dementia literature is the finding that the overall process of reclaiming self is significant to the bereavement journey. Future work should investigate identity as understood by spousal caregivers to persons with dementia, and further explore the processes, facilitators, and barriers to healthy bereavement in this population.

Infidelity is defined as the violation of a couple's assumed or stated agreement concerning emotional and/or sexual exclusivity. The current study examined the utility of personality traits (i.e., the Big Five and SIS/SES - an individual's sexual response to sexual desires, arousal, and behaviours are based on the balance between sexual excitation and sexual inhibition; Bancroft & Janssen, 2000) relative to relationship quality and attraction to others in predicting reports of infidelity among a sample of young adults (ages 18–26 years). A total of 131 men and 164 women from the US who reported being in a romantic relationship were recruited using MTurk®, an online crowdsourcing survey tool. Participants completed a series of measures assessing demographics, relationship quality and investment, sexual experience, sexual attitudes, attraction to others, and personality traits, including the Big Five and SIS/SES. A notable minority (16.6%) of participants reported at least one occasion of past infidelity during their current romantic relationship (yes/no reports); however, reports of infidelity increased significantly when individuals reported actual sexual, romantic, and online infidelity activities (78.6%). Personality traits within the Big Five and SIS/SES models were not significant predictors of infidelity. With each occurrence of emotional attraction to a person other than their current partner, the odds of reporting infidelity increased by 51.6%. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for counselling and education regarding infidelity, as well as continued research on risk factors for infidelity among young adults.

ObjectivesTo understand how bereaved spousal caregivers of persons with dementia perceive and respond to changes over the course of their spouse’s disease, from diagnosis into bereavement.DesignQualitative interview study with convenience sampling and thematic analysis approach.ParticipantsParticipants included eight women and two men (n=10) who had been spousal caregivers for a person with dementia prior to his/her death. Participants were older adults who self-reported good health and were bereaved longer than a year.SettingData collected in a small Canadian prairie city between fall 2014 and winter 2015.FindingsTwo overarching themes were developed as important components of participants’ caregiving journey: emotional reactions to change and variation in social connectedness throughout the caregiving and bereavement journey. Four key sub-themes developed through the analysis of emotional reactions to events: memorable grief overshadows persistent grief, a progressive feeling of hopelessness and overwhelmed, relief is common but hidden and gratitude is a milestone in a constructive bereavement. Three key variations of social connectedness throughout the caregiving and bereavement journey were developed: the importance of social inclusion throughout a caregiving and bereavement journey, the repeated loss of companionship and withdrawing from social interactions is contingent on needs.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that emotional changes throughout caregiving and bereavement are not linear. The need for support from family, friends and new social supports is influential in enabling the caregiver to move forward during caregiving and bereavement.

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Background: This needs assessment was initially undertaken to explore the beliefs and knowledge of nurses and physicians about the impact of environmental toxicants on maternal and infant health, as well as to describe current practice and needs related to addressing environmental health issues (EHI).Methods: One hundred and thirty-five nurses (n = 99) and physicians (n = 36) working in Saskatchewan completed an online survey. Survey questions were designed to determine how physicians and nurses think about and incorporate environmental health issues into their practice and means of increasing their capacity to do so.Results: Although participants considered it important to address EHIs with patients, in actual practice they do so with only moderate frequency. Participants reported low levels of knowledge about EHIs’ impact on health, and low levels of confidence discussing them with patients. Participants requested additional information on EHIs, especially in the form of online resources.Conclusion: The results suggests that while nurses and physicians consider EHIs important to address with patients, more education, support, and resources would increase their capacity to do so effectively. Based on the findings, considerations and recommendations for continuing education in this area have been provided.