Caring

This paper analyses data from a 3-year prospective study to understand the factors associated with becoming a caregiver to a person with a chronic illness and examines the dynamics among caregivers over time. A total of 1485 participants were drawn from a study conducted in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Two waves of data collected in 2006 for the baseline and a follow-up in 2009 were used. Information on the demographic, self-reported health and socioeconomic characteristics such as education, sources of livelihood and employment status was used.

Young carers often take on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult. For many of these children and young people, caring has been shown to have a detrimental effect on their lives. For example, caring at a young age appears to be associated with poor health and well-being, bullying and poorer educational outcomes. However, previous research has tended to be retrospective, carried out using small surveys of secondary school-aged children or to use qualitative methods with young people associated with caring projects.

The article provides an overview on what is known about young carers in general and identify in and services in Canada. Young carers are defined as being anyone under the age of 18 years who is the primary caregiver in the family due to the parental illness, disability or addiction. It discusses the potential short and long term consequences of having to take on a care giving role within one's family that is age appropriately greater than one would expect in most families.

In this paper we explored the rationales and the processes among five Ghanaian immigrants residing in two cities in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA for providing care and support to their older adult relatives in Ghana. Although some of our participants indicated that elder care duties could sometimes be overwhelming, all expressed their willingness and desire to continue to provide care for their older adult relatives.