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Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers (BASC)

Glajchen, M. "Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers of the Medically Ill (BASC)." 2005, revised 2015.

Key findings used in wiki

  • BASC is a 14-item caregiver-specific instrument developed for caregivers of the medically ill, distinct from general-population burden screens.
  • It captures worry, depression, overwhelm, and distress across concrete caregiving situations — patient pain, time pressure, hospitalization decisions, end-of-life preferences, and strained family relationships.
  • It intentionally includes positive-capacity items — whether caregiving has drawn the caregiver closer to the patient, brought meaning, strengthened family bonds, or improved self-regard — alongside the strain items.
  • That mixed structure is methodologically close to GiveCare's composite design: caregiver burden and positive caregiving experience are treated as co-present dimensions rather than opposites on a single scale.
  • In GiveCare's methodology pages, BASC supports the comparator argument that caregiver-specific instruments can pair strain and positive capacity in one tool, which a single burden-total screen cannot do.