Table 1 Semi-structured interview guide providing questions and associated prompts

1

Please tell me how you have cared for your relative since he/she left hospital?

Providing for physical and/or emotional needs; speaking up for him/her; changes in caregiving role from before the admission?

2

What sorts of things help to support you to provide this care?

Information; equipment; contact with GP, practice nurse, hospital staff; community services (which ones?); social support through friends clubs, church; care plans; how accessed – organised by hospital or other, or did you have to seek out yourself

3

Is there anything that makes it harder to keep caregiving?

Physical load, isolation, fatigue; other?

4

Overall, how does being a caregiver make you feel?

5

Please tell me about your contact with the FECH nurse?

Convenience, easy or hard to talk to; enough contact; appropriateness of telephone?

6

And how did you find the resources suggested by the FECH nurse?

Did you access these? If so, how helpful were they? And why? If not, why not?