families

Family caregivers are an irreplaceable resource for the mental health services system and the pillars on which the system currently rests. Addressing the needs of these caregivers is therefore crucial for the survival of the system. This paper will present findings from a qualitative study that aimed to explore the experiences and needs of family caregivers who relatives were at various stages of recovery from mental illness. Participants for the study were members of carer support groups as well as non-member caregivers from various regions of Sydney, Australia.

This paper reviews the work-family policy of Bulgaria before and after the transition. Before the transition the family policy was one of earner–carer where women were given support to combine work-force participation with childcare and men were at least encouraged to help with carework. After the transition women's access to help with carework became so limited that the family policy, by default, became one of dual earner, but with extremely high levels of unemployment.

The author reflects on the invisibility of young carers in North America. According to the author, these young people are hyper-mature for their age and usually take on adult responsibilities in their families. He says these people sacrifice their childhood to care for family members. Information on support programmes for young carers in North America is provided.

An evaluation was conducted of voluntary sector family support workers (FSWs) working with families of schizophrenia sufferers. FSWs completed a diary schedule and interviews were conducted with 15 co-professionals from the FSWs' multi-disciplinary teams and 62 carers from FSWs' caseloads. Carers' problems were assessed using the burden component of the Social and Behavioural Assessment Schedule and the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile. Carers were asked about the type of support received and their satisfaction.

Background  As part of a UK programme of work focusing on older people with intellectual disabilities, the circumstance of those who reside in generic services for older people were investigated.

Materials and methods  Questionnaires were sent to 2570 residential and nursing homes in 53 local authorities across the UK.

This small-scale survey explored how effectively young carers were identified by councils and their partners. It also examined the assessment and delivery of services for young carers and their families. It drew on evidence from visits to eight council areas, focus groups with young carers and meetings with those who provide young carer support services

Despite a growing awareness of the significance of helping a relative to relocate to a care home as a key phase in the caregiving career, relatively few studies in the UK have explored this experience in depth. The research on which the present paper is based sought to better understand experiences of nursing home placement from the viewpoint of relatives. The study was informed by a constructivist perspective. Data were collected in 37 semi-structured interviews involving 48 people who had assisted a close relative to move into a nursing home.

Sexuality and people with learning disabilities is a controversial subject. Research suggests that, although paid carers are starting to acknowledge the importance of relationships, attitudes may be more conservative among family carers and the general public. This quantitative study looked at the attitudes of each of these groups. The researchers also considered whether knowing someone with a learning disability has an impact on the views of the general public and if there were difference in attitudes towards homosexuality among the three groups.

This study examines whether and how couples share the provision of informal care for their parents. Four waves of the British General Household Survey contain cross-sectional information about caring for parents and parents-in-law. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted on 2214 couples that provided parent care. The findings emphasise married men's contribution to informal caring for the parental generation and at the same time demonstrate the limits of their involvement.

This paper assesses some of the implications of one of the major social changes to have taken place in the West during the second half of the twentieth century — that is, the increased employment of women, together with normative changes in gender relations and in women's expectations. These changes have been linked to an increase in individualism, which itself is associated with the transcendence of ‘first modernity’. Thus it is suggested that new approaches to social analysis are required (Beck).