care‐giving

This study reports the findings of a qualitative, grounded theory study which explored the experiences of partners and other long-term family carers living with and supporting loved ones with spinal cord injury. The study is exploratory in that little was previously known about the experience of long-term care-giving in this context in Australia. Most research in this area has focused on this experience during the first 5 years postinjury. This study focuses on the experiences of family carers beyond that 5-year period.

Informal care-givers play an important role in society, and many of the people who provide this care are lesbian women and gay men. Being a care-giver is known to be associated with poorer health and well-being, and lesbian and gay care-givers report experiences of stigma and discrimination in the care-giving context. This study involved a survey of 230 lesbian women and 503 gay men aged 60 years and over living in Australia, of which 218 were care-givers.

As mental health (MH) care has shifted from institutional settings to the community, families and friends are responsible for providing the majority of the care at home. The substantial literature on the adverse effects experienced by caregivers has focused mainly on psychological morbidity. Less attention has been paid to how caregivers for persons with MH disorders interact with larger social systems and the impacts of factors such as financial strain, lost time from leisure activities, and the availability of health and social services.

Despite the internationally recognised importance of informal care, especially in settings with limited services, few studies focus on the informal care for people with mental health problems in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Making informal care visible is important for understanding the challenges and identifying the needs to be addressed. This ethnographic case study explored the dynamics of informal care for people with chronic psychotic symptoms in a group of San living in poor socioeconomic circumstances in a township near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.

This article examines the experiences of family caregivers working with patients affected by overactive bladder ( OAB) in Hong Kong. Chronic diseases create physical and emotional burdens not only for patients but also for family caregivers, who often experience physical and emotional burnout and social impairment. Extensive literature has pertained to caregiver experiences in western and non-western settings; however, few studies have addressed the livelihoods and experiences of family caregivers of patients with OAB in ethnic Chinese communities.