Miscellaneous

This paper examines the influence of demographic and organisational factors on the ability of employees to balance work and personal life responsibilities. Specifically, the paper addresses if gender, childcare, eldercare and part time work impacts levels of perceived work/life balance of office based employees. A mixed method quantitative and qualitative approach was employed to investigate the research objectives. Survey data was collected from 710 employees in six divisions of a large Australian organisation followed by a series of semi-structured focus group interviews.

Being a close relative brings with it a large number of consequences, with the life situation changing over time. The aim of this study was to illuminate the experiences of being a middle-aged close relative of a person who has suffered a stroke 6 months after being discharged from a medical rehabilitation clinic. Narrative interviews were conducted with nine middle-aged close relatives and analysed using a content analysis with a latent approach.

This scoping review addressed the following questions: (a) What types of caregiver interventions are being done in both aging and developmental disability research? (b) How are these interventions similar and different? (c) What kinds of outcomes do these interventions have? (d) What innovative approaches are these interventions using? and (e) What can each field (developmental disabilities and gerontology) learn from the other based on this review?

As the aging population increases, the demand for informal caregiving is becoming an ever more important concern for researchers and policy-makers alike. To shed light on the implications of informal caregiving, this paper reviews current research on its impact on three areas of caregivers’ lives: employment, health, and family. Because the literature is inherently interdisciplinary, the research designs, sampling procedures, and statistical methods used are heterogeneous.

Providing substantial amounts (particularly over 20 hours a week) of care to a disabled or elderly relative or friend is associated with reduced labour market participation, poverty and adverse psychological and physical health. Many countries have introduced “cash for care” measures. Sometimes their primary objective is to provide financial support for the older or disabled person to help meet the additional costs of needing care. In other instances “cash for care” aims at offering consumer-style choice to older and disabled people.

There are 1.2 million people in England aged 65 and over who are providing unpaid care to a disabled, seriously ill or older relative or friend. If carers are to have healthy and fulfilling lives in older age, more must be done to ensure that there is adequate support in place from health and care services both for older carers and for the people they care for. 

Providing care to a partner with cancer can have a significant impact on a carer’s well-being and experience of subjectivity. However, there is little research examining how men experience the role of cancer carer, and in particular, how they negotiate constructions of gender in this role. This paper draws on a single case study of a heterosexual man caring for his partner, and conducts a narrative analysis of the construction and performance of masculine subjectivity.