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Ealing, London: Francis English describes two new videos produced by Alzheimer’s Concern Ealing to support people with dementia and carers from ethnic minority groups

The article presents abstracts of studies about children who are living with and caring for parents with mental health problems, the pespectives of young carers, parents and professionals about child caregivers, and the experiences and needs of children caring for parents with severe and enduring mental illness.

How can nursing be made more attractive to younger people? We asked our readers panel.

Mark Ivory investigates current thinking among policy makers on the economics of providing more support to long-term carers.

Investigates the legal and practical issues surrounding the proposals to allow carers of people with severe dementia or profound learning difficulties to access 'indirect payments' through and expansion of the direct payments scheme. This would allow individuals who might not be able to access payments themselves to benefit from the flexibility and choice of direct payments.

Many people with dementia are cared for by family members, who will receive little advice or support. This article describes a course developed to help carers deal with frustrating and challenging behaviour. The course provides an overview of dementia, provides coping strategies for carers and introduces cares to mindfulness meditation to help them deal with stress.

The author emphasizes the need for cooperation between disabled people's organisations and carers' groups to push for more social care in Great Britain. According to the author, the debate about carers is enjoying its highest political profile in years but the voice of disabled people is seldom heard in it. She contends that the growing number of informal carers is evidence of what happens when an expansion in the numbers requiring support meets fast-retreating public services. She points out that it is hard to believe that politicians listen to carers.

A PIONEERING NURSE is at the forefront of a programme to help improve the physical and mental health of young carers. The article focuses on Laura Ulyatt, a young carers' health nurse in Oxfordshire, England.

This article is not traditional social work writing, because it is in the form of a memoir. It offers a window into lived experience, from which most professional writing is more distant. It explores the last year of life of an elderly woman, seen through the eyes of her daughter-in-law, who is a social worker and social work educator. The article chronicles the day-to-day experiences of progressive memory loss and the challenges of caregiving. Social work can develop similar narratives of other life experiences that can increase its practitioners' understanding and wisdom.

3rd in a series of 5 articles on informal carers in the UK, focusing on carers who may be more isolated.