Chap

This chapter discusses policy initiatives for family carers of people with terminal illness. It focuses on the situation in England but provides some comparison of innovative approaches in other countries including Canada, Australia, and European member states. It suggests that policies for family carers must take into account the heterogeneity of terminal conditions and uncertainties in the timing and progression of the last stages in life, and that policy provisions should be extended into such areas as bereavement benefits.

Throughout the 20th century women were more vulnerable to poverty than men which continues into the 21st century. These gender differences are explored in a chapter on gender, poverty and social exclusion in a volume giving the results of the millennium Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) Survey. Social exclusion exists where one or more of the social sub-systems is not functioning adequately - the economic, social and family and community systems.

Chapter 2 of the book "Key Policy Issues in Long-Term Care" is presented. It explores the support of carers and the carers' organizations in certain countries in northern and western Europe. It looks into the carers' support that is given in the said countries and views the development of the new policy initiatives carers in the Netherlands. It is stated that carers' organization plays an important role in the formation of carers' policy.

Introduction: The suggestion has been made that modern medicine has diverted attention from preparing for death and helping people to die a good death. The branch of medicine which has addressed the care of the dying, palliative medicine, has seemed to give the impression that dying can be dignified through the management of terminal pain. However, many patients dying from cancer and non-cancer diagnoses have a range of symptoms which are less easily managed in old age.

Our experience of partnership working on a Scottish project on service user and carer involvement in social work education has been a deeply politicising one. First-hand encounters with power enacted at various sites of service user and carer involvement across national, institutional and local university levels have demonstrated to us that 'partnership working that pushes at the orthodox structures of power is difficult' (Barnes et al., 2006, p. 434).

The importance of informal carers has only been partially recognised in the UK. A brief examination of recent policy such as the UK Carers Act will highlight the need for further action in this area. The conceptual debate about ‘what is caring’ is summarised: does it involve physical activities only? Are emotional elements also involved? The significance of the informal caregiver's role is discussed. Informal caregiving can bring rewards, but it often has to coincide with other equally demanding roles including employment.

The selfhood of a person with dementia can be undermined not simply as a result of biological factors, but to a far greater degree by psychosocial factors. In order to support and maintain the selfhood of the person with dementia to the greatest possible degree after the diagnosis is given and for the balance of the person's life, it is crucial to understand three fundamentally important and interrelated issues that affect the person with dementia as well as his or her formal and informal carers.

This chapter provides an overview of different models of financial support for informal carers (that is, the kin and close friends) of older people. These models reflect the institutional and cultural traditions of the broader societies and welfare states of which they are a part. The chapter first argues that the issue of paying informal carers needs to be understood from several different policy perspectives. It then outlines four models of providing financial support for informal care, illustrated with examples from specific countries.

This chapter explores working partnerships with carers of older people and particularly carers in full or part-time employment who may have many stresses and conflicting demands in their lives. The legal and social context of caring is traced from The NHS and Community Care Act (DH, 1990) and subsequent care in the community initiatives. Another milestone was The National Strategy for Carers (DH, 1999a), though there has only recently been a government commitment to partnership with carers against very patchy previous provision.

This chapter provides an overview of long term care (LTC) policies in Europe and other OECD countries in order to contextualize the findings presented in the other chapters of the book.