Background: The needs of people living with dementia (PLWD) vary throughout the course of the disease and this, in turn, may change the demands for care. These ongoing challenges can have a negative impact on caregivers’ mental health. This study aimed to determine the trajectories and predictors of depressive and anxious symptomatology in Chilean family caregivers of PLWD over two years. Methods: A telephone survey was conducted with 300 family caregivers of PLWD at baseline (T1) who responded to a survey about themselves, characteristics of the PLWD, and social factors. In the second wave, 208 carers participated (T2), and 155 in the third wave (T3). Latent growth curve and latent class growth mixture analyses were performed. Results: Caregivers’ mean age was 59.3 (SD=14.5) years and 78.9% were women. Fifty‐four percent were daughters and 34.8% were wives or partners of the PLWD. Regarding depressive and anxious symptomatology, it was found that both increased significantly over time ( p <0.001). In addition, caregivers’ depressive symptomatology increased by 0.23 points for each point of increase in unmet needs of the PLWD ( p = 0.04). Furthermore, anxious symptomatology increased by 0.82 points more in women compared to men ( p = 0.01), and the greater the communicative impairment of the PLWD, anxious symptomatology increased by 0.13 points ( p = 0.01). Conclusions: This is one of the few longitudinal studies of family caregivers of PLWD in Latin America, being the only one that has evaluated whether unmet needs of PLWD have a negative impact on caregivers’ mental health over time. It was found that the more unmet needs the PLWD have, the higher caregivers’ depressive symptomatology over time. At the same time, being a woman and caring for a PLWD with impaired communication increased caregivers’ anxious symptoms progressively. In consequence, it is essential to perform an ongoing screening for depressive and anxious symptomatology in caregivers, particularly in women; and, to offer comprehensive care to the PLWD‐caregiver dyad, since not addressing the needs of the former or treating mental health problems of the latter could result in a progressive deterioration on the quality of life of both.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed existing gaps in policies, systems and services, stressing the need for concerted global action on healthy aging. Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, dementia is a challenge for health systems on a global scale. Our hypothesis is that translational potential lies in cross-country learning by involving three high-income countries with distinct geo-political-cultural-social systems in Latin America (Chile), the South Pacific (New Zealand) and Europe (Germany). Our vision is that such cross-country learning will lead to providing adequate, equitable and sustainable care and support for families living with dementia during a pandemic and beyond. We are proposing a vision for research that takes a multi-disciplinary, strength-based approach at the intersection of health care research, disaster research, global health research and dementia research. We present some insights in support of our hypothesis and proposed research agenda. We anticipate that this research has the potential to contribute towards strengthening and transforming health care systems in times of crises and beyond.

Background: The risk of developing loneliness in informal carers of people with dementia is high. Individual and cultural factors might play a differentiated role in the explanation of loneliness. The aim of this study was to describe loneliness levels in a group of family carers in Chile and its associated factors.Method: A sample of 283 Chilean carers was surveyed about loneliness (measured with the 3‐item of the revised UCLA scale) carer’s personality, and sociodemographic and health factors. Sociodemographic and clinical data from the person living with dementia was also reported by carers. Multiple linear regression models using bootstrap errors (1000 iterations) were carried out to determine predictors of loneliness.Results: Carers were, on average, 59 years old, mostly women (79%), married or in a partnership (59%), with children (78%), and caring for a parent (54%) with Alzheimer’s Disease (74%). The average level of loneliness was 4.33 (range: 3‐9), and 12% of carers reported problematic loneliness (³6). Forty‐two percent of loneliness variance was explained by emotion‐focused coping, age, extraversion, neuroticism, gain, social support, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. In a final model, gain (Coef. ‐0.050; 95% CI: ‐0.085 to ‐0.015) and emotion‐focused coping were negatively associated with loneliness (Coef. ‐0.028; 95% CI: ‐0.050 to ‐0.006), whilst depressive symptoms were positive associated with loneliness (Coef. 0.089; 95% CI: 0.050 – 0.129).Conclusions: Research usually focuses on negative aspects of caregiving. However, the perception of gain and emotion‐focused coping mechanisms used by carers can be protective factors against loneliness. Non‐pharmacological interventions might benefit from the development of those factors.