Informal Care‐Giving

Canadians travelling abroad for privately arranged surgeries paid for out‐of‐pocket are engaging in what has come to be known as medical tourism. They are often accompanied by friends or family members, who we call caregiver‐companions. Caregiver‐companions provide care in and across a variety of formal and informal settings, such as in hotels, airplanes and at home.

Informal care‐giving can be a demanding role which has been shown to impact on physical, psychological and social well‐being. Methodological weaknesses including small sample sizes and subjective measures of mental health have led to inconclusive evidence about the relationship between informal care‐giving and mental ill‐health. This paper reports on a study carried out in a region which investigated the relationship between informal care‐giving and mental ill‐health.