Research has highlighted the importance of health and social care professionals' collaboration with family caregivers. In the field of mental healthcare, involvement of family members is perceived as beneficial to the recovery process of the care recipient. Furthermore, family care‐giving is an essential part of elderly care. It is well documented that family members need support to prevent negative consequences of care‐giving. Nevertheless, involvement of and support for family caregivers have not developed into a common practice, and research has identified professional barriers to collaboration with family caregivers in several areas. The aim of this study was to explore professionals' experiences of collaboration with family caregivers of older persons with mental health problems, and how they understood their responsibility towards families. We conducted three focus group interviews with 18 health and social care professionals working in community‐based services, in three rural municipalities in Western Norway. The thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke guided the analysis. The findings in relation to the professionals' role and responsibility towards family caregivers are presented in three themes: family caregivers – a resource that needs support; a responsibility with unclear boundaries; and balancing different needs. Professionals recognised family caregivers' need for support and acknowledged the importance of family relationships. However, they experienced dilemmas in performing their dual responsibility of caring for the older care recipient as well as the family member, which they described as having unclear guidelines. They also experienced that they had insufficient knowledge to take on this responsibility. We argue that the exercising of discretion is essential for the professionals' responsibility, and that clarification of their responsibility is needed. We recommend a stronger focus in education on developing competence in the family perspective. Furthermore, the apportionment of professionals' responsibility needs to be formalised, especially when several services are involved in providing care.

The aim of this study was to better understand nurses' and other staff members' attitudes toward the usefulness of information and communication technology in home-care settings. Research has found that beliefs about the expected benefits of information and communication technology impact the use of technology. Furthermore, inexperience with using information and communication technology may cause negative attitudes. This article is based on a questionnaire to 155 nurses and other staff members in home-care in Sogn og Fjordane county in Norway. The results revealed minimal use of information and communication technology at work; however, participants had positive attitudes regarding the potential benefits of information and communication technology use in home-care. Individuals' extensive use of and familiarity with different solutions in private lives could be an important context for explaining employees' attitudes. Given that information and communication technology is both a welfare service and a market good, this may explain individuals' positive attitudes toward information and communication technology despite their lack of experience with it at work. Experiences with information and communication technology as a market good and the way new technologies can affect work routines will affect the implementation of information and communication technology in home-care.

The results indicate that nurses and other health professionals, to a small extent, have participated in educational programmes about family caregivers. Our findings indicate that participation in educational programmes may be particularly important for health professionals in leadership positions and for health professionals with vocational training.

Purpose To gain knowledge regarding family caregivers of home-dwelling older adults with mental health problems and the meaning-making of the caregiver’s role. Design An explorative qualitative study involving narrative analysis. Methods Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted among eight adult children. Interview data were analysed using narrative analysis. The reporting adhered to consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies. Results Each participant narrated unique and nuanced stories of the caregiver role, but their stories also revealed prominent themes across participants’ experiences and meaning-making. The analysis revealed three themes: family relationships through a long life, a demanding and difficult caregiver role, and reconstructing the caregiver’s role by leaving the responsibility to healthcare services. Conclusion Family caregivers experienced the role as purposeful and demanding. Mostly, psychological reactions to behaviour symptoms and duration of caregiving were considered difficult and demanding. They described that they lacked knowledge of the illness and how to perform care. Sharing care responsibility with healthcare services had the potential to ease family caregivers’ burden. However, based on a long life as caregivers, some experienced difficulties when reconstructing and adjusting the role to their life situation.