Poli, Arianna

This article illustrates the implications of two recent trends on family carers' health: the employment of home-based migrant care workers; and the provision of web-based supports. The main factors traditionally associated with carers' health are used to analyse the results of a six-country study via a multilevel linear regression. Attention will be dedicated to the role of migrant care workers, who are often hired by private households to provide eldercare.

An increasing amount of research in Europe – and beyond – has focused on the development of innovative solutions for providing support services to family carers of frail older people. This is especially the case in terms of web-based programmes. [...] There is clearly a role for well-designed and robustly supported web-based support platforms like InformCare in helping to sustain carers, deliver policy aims and ensure carer access to information, advice and support.

InformCare is a European Web platform that supports informal caregivers of older people by providing access to online information and professional and peer support. The aim of this study was to assess the usage and usability of a psychosocial Web-based program carried out in three European countries (Italy, Sweden, and Germany). A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was adopted, comprising baseline and postintervention assessments, as well as combined thematic content analysis of results and focus group findings.