Assessing Grief in Family Caregivers of Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder or Substance Use Disorder using the Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory Short Form (MM-CGI-SF).

This study assessed grief in caregivers of family members with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and substance use disorder (SUD) using the Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory Short Form (MM-CGI-SF). We used snowball sampling to recruit participants who had family members with AUD and SUD. The sample was comprised of 100 caregivers of family members with AUD and 75 caregivers of family members with SUD. The original MM-CFI-SF was modified by changing the wording to reflect those with AUD and SUD. The 18-item instrument consisted of 3 factors: personal sacrifice burden, sadness and longing, and worry and felt isolation. The professional care of caregivers with family members with AUD and SUD should be addressed by health professionals in the same manner as dementia caregivers. AUD and SUD caregivers may also downplay the distress, require social support, or have a common reaction to the stress and grief encountered. The correlations were moderate to strong and significant between each of the factors for both AUD and SUD caregiver scale.

Managing End-of-Life Uncertainty: Applying Problematic Integration Theory to Spousal Communication About Death and Dying.

A significant number of Americans die in ways that do not reflect their preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care. For married individuals, the spouse often has the legal authority to make decisions at EOL. Many factors, most notably open preemptive communication about care preferences and dying wishes, determine whether such communication is viable and a partner's wishes are respected. We used a mixed method approach, involving a content analysis of spouses' reasons for seeking and avoiding conversations regarding their partners' EOL care preferences, and examined whether certain demographic factors (eg, income, gender, age) more likely contributed to the initiation of EOL conversations. We situate our findings within the broader cultural discourse about death and dying and highlight the influence of uncertainty in spousal EOL communication.

Talking about end-of-life preferences in marriage: applying the theory of motivated information management.

The theory of motivated information management (TMIM) provides one framework to examine information-seeking behaviors, especially in conversations involving sensitive or difficult information such as preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care. The spouse plays a significant role in decision making surrounding EOL care. Consequently, individuals need information about spouses' EOL preferences in order to ensure carrying out those desires. Our findings support the value of TMIM as a framework to understand factors that influence couples' EOL care information-seeking behaviors. In support of the theory, we provide factors that influence the initiation or avoidance of EOL conversations between spouses.