Costs

This report updates the estimate of the value of unpaid care published by Carers UK in 2002 in ‘Without Us…? Calculating the value of carers’ support’. Based on data available for the first time at local as well as at national level, and on comprehensive information about the time carers devote to supporting those who need their help, the report reveals just how crucial carers are to the health and social care system and to the UK’s economy. 

This paper aims to discuss the reasons why caregiving in the community had ended for a sample of dependent older people, two-thirds of whom had dementia. Comparisons are made between the situation of a spouse caring for a partner and a daughter or son caring for a parent in a separate household. Spouses in the study had often sustained a greater burden before caregiving collapsed than had daughters or sons. They were less likely, however, to have had support from the home care service.

Facts about carers 2015 is a Carers UK digest and analysis of all the major research and statistics about carers in the UK.

This briefing covers:

• Who are carers?
• How many people are carers?
• Number of hours of care provided
• Valuing carers
• Carer demographics
• What kind of care do carers provide?
• Who do they care for?
• The impact of caring

Information on what the changes introduced by the Care Act will mean for carers and the cared for. The resource provides an explanation of care and support in England and outlines key elements of the act, including: deferred payment agreements; needs and eligibility; support for carers; and cap on care costs.

The future market costs of long-term care for older people will be affected by the extent of informal care. This paper reports on projections of receipt of informal care by disabled older people from their spouses and (adult) children to 2031 in England. The paper shows that, over the next 30 years, care by spouses is likely to increase substantially. However, if current patterns of care remain the same, care by children will also need to increase by nearly 60 per cent by 2031. It is not clear that the supply of care by children will rise to meet this demand. 

Key points from this report about malnutrition: • Malnutrition is a hidden issue in the community which needs to be urgently tackled • Families are under stress and struggling to care without the right advice and support • Malnutrition is largely preventable and treatable • Earlier intervention will help to improve the quality of life for individuals and reap substantial cost savings to health and social care.

In Alzheimer's disease and related disorders estimates of informal care costs have been neglected and when included in cost of illness studies, valuations have been highly variable. This illustrates the need to standardise the methodology not only for valuing formal, but also informal care costs. Methods used for valuing informal care are identified, together with theoretical and practical challenges in measurement.

Objective: We reviewed evidence on the cost-effectiveness of prevention, care and treatment strategies in relation to dementia.

Methods: We performed a systematic review of available literature on economic evaluations of dementia care, searching key databases and websites in medicine, social care and economics. Literature reviews were privileged, and other study designs were included only to fill gaps in the evidence base. Narrative analysis was used to synthesise the results.

Providing informal care can be both a burden and a source of satisfaction. To understand the welfare effect on caregivers, we need an estimate of the ‘shadow value’ of informal care, an imputed value for the non-market activity. We use data from the 2006–2007 Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe which offers the needed details on 29,471 individuals in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Of these, 9768 are unpaid non-co-resident caregivers.

This paper reviews the challenges faced by unpaid family carers and the current support and services available to them. It argues that current carer support should be built on and presents the evidence for doing so, including evidence of the opportunities to make substantial savings in residential care costs. The paper suggests a new way in which proposed resource allocation and personal budget systems could be developed in order to sustain caring, avoiding the risk of a new perverse incentive to families to end caring roles.