Family caregiving after nursing home admission.
Although institutionalization of a cognitively impaired (CI) person is a pivotal point in family life, it is a comparatively neglected topic in the literature. The majority of family caregiving studies have defined institutionalization as an outcome and terminated data collection when it occurred. However, families are an oftenneglected resource for helping new residents make an optimal transition from home to institutional life. In that CI residents who demonstrate situation-appropriate responses have a greater likelihood for participation in therapeutic social, recreational and treatment programs in nursing homes, knowledge of factors that complicate family caregivers' adaptation and decrease the likelihood of their involvement in nursing home care is critical. The intent of this paper is to summarize findings from studies of post-institutionalization family caregiving involvement from the past decade and to generate recommendations for future studies on this topic.