The focus of this paper is the experiences and needs of family carers of people with end-stage dementia. The project involved in-depth, qualitative interviews with 15 carers. The major themes emerging from the accounts of participants' experiences were: getting support; having to trust others with care; managing the loneliness of being a carer; witnessing a loved one fade away; anticipating and experiencing death; and re-establishing life after the funeral. Carers expressed a range of instrumental and psychosocial needs. The study has provided a more personal account of the caring experience than much of the related literature. It has emphasized the need of carers for genuine understanding and connection -from family and friends as well as healthcare staff. The study highlights the amount of support carers can provide to each other through support groups and associated friendships, and stresses the importance of healthcare staff acknowledging and respecting this capacity of carers.

Background:  Psychological services are increasingly provided within a context in which third party payers impose limits on the number of sessions available to the client and therapist. Considerable research has addressed the effect of time limits on therapeutic outcomes, while effects on therapeutic process have received less attention. This article reports on research that assessed the perceived impact of externally determined time limits on therapeutic process from the perspective of practicing psychologists. Methods:  This study used a concurrent triangulation mixed‐methods design. Study 1 was a repeated measures questionnaire that was both qualitative and quantitative in nature, and Study 2 utilised qualitative semi‐structured interviews. Twenty‐seven Australian psychologists treating clients within externally imposed time limits were interviewed, and 85 completed a questionnaire to obtain their perspective on the impact of time limits on the therapeutic process. Results:  Therapeutic approach was impacted by time limits, including choice of therapeutic modality, shifts in problem definition and approach, and increased directiveness, prompting concern about a focus on symptom removal over facilitating maintenance of treatment gains. Conclusions:  This research contributes to an understanding of how temporal constraints influence treatment, and managed care funding policies may need to be considered in the light of this understanding.

Particular places may function as resources for older people in their efforts to actively maintain independence. In Australia, a place of this type is the licensed or 'registered' club which provides leisure facilities, restaurant and bar services and opportunities for informal social interaction. This paper draws on the findings of an ethnographic study which sought to understand the nature, meaning and role of registered club participation for members of one club in Sydney, Australia, to describe the role of club participation in maintaining independence for older people. Participant observation and in-depth interviewing over a four and half year period yielded qualitative data which were analysed using thematic, narrative and key-words-in-context methods of analysis. Club-use facilitated independence-conceptualised as self-reliance-by being an accessible resource utilised by older club-goers to manage daily living and to maintain 'everyday competence'. Independence-conceptualised as self-direction-was facilitated by the availability of a range of options enabling the exercise of choice and balanced reciprocity in relationships. Additionally, club-going was symbolic, for some, of continuing independence. The findings provide a valuable insight into a means by which older people manage later life's challenges, highlighting the active nature of these efforts and the role of local contexts that function as a resource for independence.