Patient Care/*methods

Background: In The Netherlands, one out of six Dutch employees has informal care tasks; in the hospital and healthcare sector, this ratio is one out of four workers. Informal carers experience problems with the combination of work and informal care. In particular, they have problems with the burden of responsibility, a lack of independence and their health.

Background: From a health service perspective, informal care is often viewed as a potentially cost-effective way of transferring costs out of the formal healthcare sector.