Statistical data

Objective: To profile the Australian adults who are caring for a relative with a mental disorder.

Method: Data came from the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2007 (NSMHWB), a nationally representative household survey of 8841 individuals aged between 16 and 85 years.

There has been growing recognition of the important role that carers play in enabling vulnerable adults to remain in the community. Recent legislation has recognised the role of the family carers and encouraged the development of support services. Considerable research has been undertaken to identify the needs and the experiences of the carers in general but little specific attention has focused on older carers. This is despite the fact that they have their own unique needs which may have been hidden in previous research.

This chapter opens with the movement to long-term care benefits in Germany in 1994 with a two-tiered system of employment-related, contribution-based long-term care insurance (LTCI) and a last resort of tax-funded social assistance. The goals were to reduce the financial burden on the states and municipalities, lessen poverty for care clients, increase long-term care services, expand home- and community-based services and support informal caring, and to prevent or delay institutionalisation.

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.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the interventions for improving mental health of caregivers of people with stroke by synthesizing individual studies. A meta-analysis was performed to summarize findings of intervention studies of caregivers of elderly stroke patients. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis and a publication bias were tested.

This report presents results of projections of use and supply of long-term care for older persons in four countries representative of different long-term care systems: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland. Using a standardised methodology, the projections show that between 2010 and 2060, the numbers of users of residential care, formal home care and informal care are projected to increase in all countries, but at different rates. The results also indicate that if current patterns of care use and supply prevail, supply of informal and formal care is likely to fall behind demand.

Background and Purpose— Early supported discharge (ESD) for stroke has been shown to yield outcomes similar to or better than those of conventional care, but there is less information on the impact on costs and on the caregiver. The purpose of this study is to estimate the costs associated with an ESD program compared with those of usual care.

Methods— We conducted a randomized controlled trial of stroke patients who required rehabilitation services and who had a caregiver at home.

Stroke patients, and their carers can have many questions about the mental and physical effects of the condition, hospital procedures and treatments, and prospects for the future. This paper discusses issues involved in giving information to patients-some of whom may be experiencing serious communication problems - as well as those looking after them, and offers solutions. 

This paper explores the relationship between the dimensions of a debate cited at the intersection of ageing, gender, and family care. It draws together evidence from the General Household Survey for Britain 2000 and social research to explore the contribution and conceptualization of caring by older husbands. UK research on caring reveals that among older spouses, equal numbers of husbands and wives provide intensive care.

The paper examines trends in the probability of providing intense care for older parents over the fifteen years between 1985 and 2000, and asks what would happen to the numbers of people providing care to older parents if these trends were to continue in the coming decades. Because the present study is based on an analysis of past trends in provision of informal care, it allows for some key assumptions underlying the projections of informal care in future years to be examined empirically.