Formal and informal care for people with dementia: factors associated with service receipt

Details of service receipt by 132 people diagnosed with dementia and their carers were collected in South London (boroughs of Lewisham, Camberwell, Southwark and Croydon), a geographical area served by several health and social care providers. The data collected included the Caregiver Activity Survey, which details the informal care given. This paper reports the formal and informal services received by the people with dementia at entry to the study. The amount of time spent on specific caring tasks by all informal carers of people with dementia averaged seven hours per week, but was significantly higher for co-resident carers, even when controlling for the level of dependency of the person cared-for. The odds ratios of receipt of formal services are given, according to where people were living: in the community or residential care, with co-resident carers or alone.