English

Personalisation is now the driving agenda for adult social care and Putting People First recognises that increasing numbers of ordinary people will be called upon to contribute to care delivered in people’s own homes. Of the UK's six million carers, 1.3 million are already caring, unpaid, for over 50 hours a week. Carers have always wanted better outcomes for the people they care for. However, with many carers suffering poverty, ill health and isolation due to unsustainably heavy caring roles, they also want and deserve better outcomes for themselves.

Being a caregiver with responsibility for someone with reduced health compared with not being a caregiver may mean different views of life satisfaction. Knowledge of what leads to reduced life satisfaction in caregivers may be helpful in interventions. Informal caregivers gainfully employed or not, aged 50–89 years, were studied with regard to life satisfaction depending on the extent of caregiving to identify types of social support of value for caregivers.

Reactions to caregiving and depression affect a carer's ability to continue in their caring role. This paper examines the relationship between reactions to caregiving and depression in carers of frail, older people and is a cross-sectional study of carers of community-living people (≥70 years), identified as frail, who completed a postal questionnaire. Reactions to caregiving were evaluated using the Caregiver Reaction Assessment. Anxiety and depression symptoms were measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

‘This leaflet is about confidentiality issues which arise between mental health professionals and carers of adults with mental health problems, in particular those who provide on-going help and support, without payment, to a relative, partner or friend.

The issues of confidentiality and information-sharing between mental health professionals and carers are difficult and complex to resolve. Some of these problems are described, together with examples of good practice which may help address them.’