The research team carried out 25 in-depth interviews with carers who had attended CrISP courses. Interviews used a narrative approach enabling carers to talk about their experience of caring and reflect on the impact of the courses on that experience.
Carers were invited to take part through information circulated by the university through the Alzheimer’s Society local staff. Interviews were carried out in seven areas in London and the south of England including urban, rural and coastal areas.
The 25 carers were wives, husbands, daughters, sons and siblings of a person with dementia and were aged from 48-85. Those they cared for were aged between 78-94, with a variety of diagnoses. 68 per cent of carers lived with the person they cared for.