carers

Carers play an ambiguous role within the personalisation paradigm currently shaping adult social care practice in England. Although carers have rights to assessments and support in their own right, these rights sit uneasily alongside the practices of assessment, support planning and personal budget (PB) allocation for older and disabled people. This paper reports how 14 dyads of older and learning disabled people with cognitive and/or communication impairments and their carers viewed the roles - desired and actual - played by carers in PBs.

Most published research on informal care for older people focuses on the support provided by relatives. The role of non-kin carers can, however, also be significant in supporting older people in their own homes. In this paper, we report the findings from an exploratory study of the support provided by friends and neighbours who are the main carers of frail older people. It draws on interviews with an opportunistic sample of friends, neighbours and older people, which explored their views about the support arrangements, the reasons why help was provided and any difficulties experienced.

The guidance looks at best practice for local commissioning partnerships to provide services to support carers of individuals with a drug problem. The document also covers how best to include carers (where appropriate) in the drug treatment of the individuals they are concerned for – citing the evidence base that demonstrates involving carers can improve outcomes for users. The guidance as a whole is predicated on the assumption that commissioners and services providers involve and consult carers in every stage of service design and delivery.

This article critically examines literature relating to the care of older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. It promotes an analysis of the network context of this care and advocates the use of the concept of ‘communities of practice’ to understand the processes of network participation and identity negotiation.

The author, a service user with schizophrenia,  discusses how she can utilize her position and produce research that is acceptable, reliable, and credible. She discusses this in relation to a research proposal to examine the role of the carer in the recovery process of people with schizophrenia.

Social support is a potentially powerful mediator of well-being for family carers. Given that social engagement often decreases with age, the Internet broadens the opportunities for aging carers of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to provide support to one another. This article reviews what constitutes social support, its importance to older adults, and more specifically carers of those with I/DD. Computer and Internet usage by older adults is briefly reviewed.

Objective: To gain insight into caregivers' understanding of the causes of behaviours they find problematic in people with Alzheimer's disease in order to inform the development of educational strategies.

INTRODUCTION: In 2009, the United Kingdom Department of Health identified the need to assist families so that people with dementia can remain living at home. Occupational therapists could support families and their loved ones at home by understanding the human occupational impact of caregiving. This impact includes how one is influenced by values and motivated to perform activities shaped by experiences and life roles.

Younger people with dementia and their carers are an overlooked population for research, policy and practice attention. In this study, data were collected from both the United States and the UK in order to explore the meaning and construction of selfhood and identity.

There are an estimated 6.4 million people in the UK1 currently caring for a child, friend, neighbour, partner or parent or a combination of these. Carers look after family and friends who are disabled, frail or ill. They work alongside professionals, volunteers, care homes, special schools and community groups often caring for people in their own home. The hours of care that they provide for ill, frail or disabled people often comes at a cost to their own health and well-being. The impact on a carers’ health and well-being, finances and relationships cannot be underestimated.