carers

Awareness about the role of carers in society and their contribution to the UK economy has been catapulted to the top of the political agenda in recent months following the launch of the first ever Carers' Strategy. Writing at the time of the document's publication, Imelda Redmond looks in more detail at the make up of this six‐million strong group and explains what her organisation is doing to further promote its rights.

An aging population is often taken to require a profound reorganization of the prevailing health care system. In particular, a more cost-effective care system is warranted and ICT-based home care is often considered a promising alternative. Modern health care devices admit a transfer of patients with rather complex care needs from institutions to the home care setting.

Considers how carers of working age incur pension penalties and the ways in which social security legislation has helped or hindered them in acquiring state pensions. Outlines how paid employment and earnings are related to caring responsibilities, discusses the impact of caring on state and private pensions, and considers how pension policy for the future may affect carers.

This article presents the key findings from a collaborative study about the experiences and support needs of carers whose relatives are admitted into a nursing or residential care home. Drawing upon data from carers' qualitative accounts, it considers carers' post‐admission roles, responsibilities and profiles, and the contribution carers make to the continued care of their relative. Carers' post‐admission caring experiences are described in detail and differences between spouse carers and carers involved in looking after a parent are identified.

The author discusses the SCIE practice guide 'Implementing the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004'.  The online practice guide translates what is known from research and policy into recommendations and practice examples. It is designed to be used alongside existing Department of Health guidance.

There is a paucity of information regarding the extent and nature of caring provided by minority ethnic communities. The proportion of older people from these communities will dramatically increase in the next 20 years, which will be accompanied by increasing health and social care needs and an increased demand for carers. A qualitative, exploratory study was conducted to identify the health and social care needs of informal carers, who were caring for a dependent adult from a Bangladeshi community in South Wales, UK.

Reports on an evaluation of Care Direct, a service launched by the Department of Health piloted in six areas offering information and support to people over 60 and their carers principally through a telephone help-line service. A survey of 600 callers was carried out during 2002. The analysis focuses on the characteristics of users and callers experience of using the service. Concludes that the experience of the first year has been positive, with the service meeting its targets in terms of range and volume of activity, and achieving satisfaction with callers.

Caring for a spouse with dementia is stressful and respite care is sometimes used to reduce this burden. Spouses may find some aspects of caring rewarding but the literature on positive aspects of caring is limited. To describe activities enjoyed by patients with dementia together with their spouses, and examine their relationship with psychological morbidity in carers. A convenience sample of 46 patients with mild to moderate dementia (91% with Alzheimer's disease, AD) and their spouses were interviewed at home.

The aim of this paper is to disentangle the role of gender and partnership status in the caring commitments of older people (age 65 and over). Logistic and interval regression models are applied to individual records from the 2001 UK Census to estimate: (1) the impact of gender on the likelihood of being a carer; (2) the impact of gender on the hours of care provided; and (3) the impact of gender on the likelihood of being a carer for different groups defined by marital status.

Introduction: Complex older adults, such as those with hip fracture, frequently require care from multiple professionals across a variety of settings. Integrated care both between providers and across settings is important to ensure care quality and patient safety. The purpose of this study was to determine the core factors related to poorly integrated care when hip fracture patients transition between care settings.