Informal care

Background: With an increasing retirement age, more older adults are combining employment with informal care-giving responsibilities. However, little is known about how older workers experience care-giving activities next to their paid jobs. Objective: This study aims to fill this gap by examining how the work situation (i.e. working hours, occupational status and perceived access to human resources practices) is associated with feelings of gratification, burden and stress in care-giving.

Background: A series of policies aimed toward rational resource allocation of long‐term care have being actively discussed since the launch of the social long‐term care insurance in Shanghai, and it is important to take a societal perspective for informed decision‐making. Objectives: This study aims to explore factors that are associated with well‐being of informal caregivers in Shanghai, and to provide empirical evidence of application of an established well‐being valuation method to monetise informal caregivers' well‐being losses in a developing country.

Purpose: The number of people aged 80 and above is projected to triple over the next 30 years. Expanding public expenditure on long-term care services has made policies encouraged informal caregiving. Burden of care describes challenges connected to informal caregiving. Dependent patients report feelings of being a burden. Few studies have focused on both the experience of caregiver burden and recipients’ feelings of burden. This study explore the experiences of old patients and informal caregivers in the first 30 days after the patient’s discharge.

Objectives: This article proposes an intervention from the field of social sciences to improve the knowledge of informal caregivers about care for the elderly. Methods: We analyze the social and cultural relationships that support the informal care culture in Spain. Some of the most important factors that are an obstacle to the professionalization of the sector are presented. Findings: The profiles of the informal caregivers are established, highlighting that most of them are women, whether they are family members or not.

Aims: The aims of this study are to describe informal care activities and to estimate the societal cost of informal care of community-dwelling frail elderly people in Sweden. Methods: This study was performed within the frame of the TREEE project that included 408 frail elderly patients. At index hospitalisation (baseline), primary informal caregivers of the patients were provided with a questionnaire on informal care during a period of three months. Questions concerning other (secondary) informal caregivers were also included.

Background and objective: Health and social care may affect unpaid (family) carers’ health and wellbeing in addition to patients’ lives. It is recommended that such impacts (carer effects) are considered in decision-making. However, the scope of carer effects and range of decisions where carer effects should be considered is uncertain.

Purpose: This paper aims to reports on an academic–industry service development innovation to advance the symptom monitor and track feature within the CogniCare app to support family carers of people living with dementia. Expert opinion from dementia care professionals identified key monitoring strategies for enhanced carer competence and confidence in the early identification of relevant symptoms that would help facilitate meaningful hospital/social care consultations.

Background: In many communities around the world, informal caregivers of older adults with dementia represent an essential, yet often underappreciated, source of long-term care. The present study aimed to determine the personal experiences of such caregivers, which could be instrumental for developing means of improving the quality of care for both care receivers and their informal caregivers. Methods: Five semi-structured focus-group discussions were held. The participants (n = 31) were all informal caregivers of older adults with dementia.

Background: Facing rapidly ageing populations, many Western countries aim to stimulate informal care provision as a way to meet the growing long-term care (LTC) demand. While various studies report the impact of providing informal care on the health of caregivers, it is less clear whether and to what extent this impact differs across countries.

Background: Rapid demographic shifts and socio-economic changes are fuelling concerns over the inadequate supply of informal care - the most common source of care-giving for older people in China. Unmet long-term care needs, which are believed to cause numerous adverse effects on health, continue to increase. Methods: Drawing data from the 2015 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey, this study explores the relationship between informal care provision and unmet long-term care needs among older people in China.