| Course | MSW 532 Social Work with the Aging and Their Families |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Caregiver burden assessment |
| Length | About 480 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 532 Week 3
Caregiver Burden Assessment for D., 52, Caring for a Parent With Vascular Dementia: Hands-On Hours Apart From Hours of Being Available, Employment in Its Own Block, What Stopped Arriving and the Day She Cannot
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 532: Social Work with the Aging and Their Families
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Caregiver Burden Assessment for D., 52, Caring for a Parent With Vascular Dementia: Hands-On Hours Apart From Hours of Being Available, Employment in Its Own Block, What Stopped Arriving and the Day She Cannot
Sources
Interview with D., October 9, and D.'s completion of the 12-item short form of the Zarit Burden Interview (Bédard et al., 2001).
Hands-On Hours
Medication setup and prompting: 4 hours a week. Meals: 8 hours. Help with bathing and dressing: 5 hours. Appointments and pharmacy: 3 hours. Total: about 20 hours a week of hands-on care.
Hours of Being Available
E. cannot be left alone more than about two hours because E. wanders outdoors and has fallen. So D. is on call every evening and night, about 70 hours a week in which D. cannot leave the house for long, cannot take a second shift and sleeps lightly. These hours are not hands-on, but they cannot be spent on anything else.
Employment in Its Own Block
D. works as a medical records clerk, 32 hours a week, down from 40 in 2023. Unpaid leave days taken in the past year: 11. D. turned down a promotion in March because it required evening coverage. Lost income compared with full time: about $9,000 a year.
What Leaves and What Stopped Arriving
D. stopped attending a Tuesday choir in 2024. A sister-in-law who used to bring meals moved away. D.'s own physician visit is a year overdue.
What E. Still Provides
E. pays the household's costs and owns the house D. lives in. E. still folds laundry, tells D. stories about D.'s mother and says thank you most evenings. D. said these are the reasons she stays.
The Score
D. scored 27 of 48 on the short form. The scale's developers report the short form as a valid shorter version for caregivers of people with dementia (Bédard et al., 2001); the score is recorded as a reference point for later comparison, not as a diagnosis.
The Day She Cannot
If D. becomes ill, there is no plan. S. could come for two days; nobody could come for two weeks. This is the most important finding: the care arrangement has no backup. National data show that many family caregivers are employed and carry care without paid help (AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving, 2020); D. is typical, and that is the problem.
Recommendations
A backup plan for a two-week absence; four hours a week of paid aide time to cover D.'s Saturday shifts; a check that D.'s own doctor visit is booked.
References
AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving. (2020). Caregiving in the U.S. 2020. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2020/caregiving-in-the-united-states.html
Bédard, M., Molloy, D. W., Squire, L., Dubois, S., Lever, J. A., & O'Donnell, M. (2001). The Zarit Burden Interview: A new short version and screening version. The Gerontologist, 41(5), 652-657. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/41.5.652
MSW 532 Week 3 instructions, in plain terms
The burden assessment runs figures down the page, and none of them is a mood. Separate hands-on hours from hours of simply being available, which cannot be spent on anything else and are usually left out of a first draft. Put employment in its own block: hours cut, leave taken, promotions declined and income lost. Record what has left the caregiver's life and what has stopped arriving, such as rest, visits or medical care. Include what the older person still provides. If you use a standardized measure, name its version and say what the score can and cannot show. End with the day the caregiver cannot: what happens if they are ill.
Inside the MSW 532 Week 3 example
The sources section names an interview and the 12-item short form described by Bédard et al. (2001). Hands-on care totals about 20 hours a week across medication, meals, bathing and appointments. Availability adds about 70 hours a week because the parent cannot be left alone. The employment block records 32 hours, 11 unpaid days, a declined promotion and about $9,000 a year lost. A section lists a dropped choir, a departed meal helper and an overdue checkup. Another records the parent's laundry folding, stories and thanks. The score of 27 of 48 is treated as a reference point. The final section finds no backup, citing AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving (2020).
Where the points sit in the MSW 532 Week 3 rubric
Faculty look first for figures. An assessment that describes a caregiver as overwhelmed or stressed, without hours, loses the most. Next is the omission of hours of availability, which often outnumber hands-on hours. Credit goes to a separate employment block, a record of what has left the caregiver's life, a balanced account of what the older person still provides and careful use of any instrument. The day the caregiver cannot is often the most important finding and should be named. Recommendations should follow from the figures. Sources, including the instrument, need APA entries. A caregiver who says she is managing still gets the full set of figures.
MSW 532 Week 3 help from the desk
The assessment that loses most reports feelings and a score with no hours. Another common gap is counting only hands-on care, which hides the nights a caregiver cannot leave. Some assessments skip employment, though lost work is often the largest cost. Others list only burdens and leave out what the older person still gives, which the caregiver may say is why they stay. If your caregiver is different, perhaps a spouse in their 80s or a son caring from another state, keep the same blocks and adjust them: hours, availability, work, losses, what is received and the backup. An assessment drafted for your caregiver will end with the plan for the week they are sick.
Get a MSW-532 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Send the assessment instructions and the rubric your section uses, plus any scale or form it attached, and a custom example is returned inside 24 to 48 hours with the figures laid out the way that template wants them. The first one is free, revisions included, and every number in it carries where it came from.
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MSW 532 Week 3 questions, answered
The caregiver says she is managing. Does the assessment stop there?
It records the sentence and keeps counting. Managing is a comparison against her own last month rather than against what the arrangement demands, and this document exists to put figures beside it. Where the totals and the statement disagree, both belong in the write-up and the disagreement is named. Overwriting what she said is a reliable deduction here.
A brother sends money and never visits. Does he go in?
Yes, in the money column, with the amount and how regularly it arrives if the case says so. Contribution is not only hours, and a document counting only what happens inside the house makes one sibling look absent when he is paying for the aide. Where the amount is unknown, record that it is unknown.
One of the people helping is paid. Does that change anything?
It changes which column she belongs in. Paid hours are a cost to the household and are not the family's unpaid capacity, and mixing the two inflates the support while hiding the bill. List her hours, her rate where the case gives one, and who is paying it, then keep the unpaid totals separate underneath.
Where can I find a free MSW 532 Week 3 sample paper?
A full MSW 532 Week 3 caregiver burden assessment for a daughter caring for a parent with dementia is available here, with margin notes on hours and employment.
What is the main finding of the MSW 532 Week 3 sample?
That the care arrangement has no backup: if the daughter became ill, the son could come for two days and nobody could cover two weeks.