Financial

Today more and more children are living with complex health care needs, many of these children are living with life limiting and/or threatening conditions, some are medically fragile. To live a childhood these children must live in communities and with their families. In most cases this means the child’s carers, their parents, most often their mothers, are required to undertake a great deal of the child’s care.

Background: Informal caregivers represent the foundation of the palliative care workforce and are the main providers of end of life care. Financial pressures are among the most serious concerns for many carers and the financial burden of end of life caregiving can be substantial. Methods: The aim of this critical debate paper was to review and critique some of the key evidence on the financial costs of informal caregiving and describe how these costs represent an equity issue in palliative care.