Hughes, M. E.

The adverse effects of caregiving provided by family members, partners, and friends for people dying at home from a life-limiting illness have been extensively documented in the palliative care research literature, yet minimal attention has been directed towards the strengths of informal carers and their subsequent growth and development.

An issue yet to be examined in the social work research literature concerns an expected death at home and the experiences of informal carers being subjected to a police investigation following a request for help. While research in this area is scant, sufficient mention of unnecessary police involvement is made in the palliative care literature to show that incidents like these have occurred throughout Australia, America, Canada and the UK.