POPULATIONS AT RISK ACROSS THE LIFESPAN:PROGRAM EVALUATIONS An Evaluation of a Wellness Guide for Older Carers Living in the Community Beverly O’Connell, Liza Heslop, and Helen Fennessy ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the usefulness and effectiveness of a wellness guide and to identify whether its use by a group of older ‘‘new’’ carers would make them healthier and knowledgeable of com- munity resources. Design and Sample: Pretest, posttest measures of physical and mental health and a questionnaire with associated focus groups. A purposive sample of 21 older carers who were ‘‘new’’ carers was selected for the study. Measures: Locus of control (LOC), Short Form 12, depression anxiety stress scale, and questionnaire. Results: Participants embraced the wellness guide as an excellent resource. It changed their behavior and improved their health on LOC measures, although changes in physical and mental health were not statistically significant. Conclusions: The wellness guide assisted carers’ pre- paredness for their role and enhanced their sense of personal control over demanding situations. Key words: community care, health promotion, health status, older carers, wellness guide. In Australia, 450,900 people identify themselves as primary carers of people who need care due to age or disability (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004). For older carers, the impact of caring may be profound. Along with the stress of continual caring responsibil- ities, older carers must cope with their own age- related health issues. As levels of dependency of care-recipients increase, older carers may find them- selves with little time, energy, or inclination to main- tain or improve their own well-being and to seek helpful resources. Conservative estimates from the Carers Association of Australia (Briggs & Fisher, 2000) show that carers save the Australian economy US$19.3 billion annually. Without carers, many people would be institutionalized. More should be done to help caregivers in this demanding role. Older carers who are new to the caring role are particularly vulnerable. Studies have shown that the new carer is often poorly prepared for the caring role, which may be imposed on them suddenly. These cir- cumstances are linked to high levels of stress that can negatively impact on physical health (Breretib & Nolan, 2000; Stoltz, Uden, & Willman, 2004). New carers form the participant group in this study. Background To address the need to support carers, the Older Carers’ Health and Wellbeing Project was initiated in 2003 by a research team from the School of Nursing, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia and the Depart- ment of Human Services, Victoria, Australia. The project was conducted in the Barwon-South Western Region, which is an urban and rural region lying in the hinterland of Victoria’s largest regional city. The three stages of the project are summarized in Table 1. In the first stage of the project, carers aged 60 years or older, living in the Barwon-South Western Region of Victoria, Australia, participated in a com- prehensive needs analysis (O’Connell, Bailey, & Walker, 2003). It identified that carers in the region were Beverly O’Connell, R.N., Ph.D., is Professor, School of Nursing, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Aus- tralia. Liza Heslop, R.N., Ph.D., is Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery,Victoria University, St. Albans,Victoria, Australia. Helen Fennessy, Bache- lor of Social Work and a Bachelor of Letters (Honours), is Research fellow, School of Nursing, Deakin Univer- sity, Burwood,Victoria, Australia. Correspondence to: Beverly O’Connell, School of Nursing, Deakin Univer- sity, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Vic 3125, Australia. E-mail: beverly.connell@deakin.edu.au 302 Public Health Nursing Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 302–309 0737-1209/r 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1446.2010.00859.x