Article

Contemporary systems of welfare are increasingly underpinned by the assumption that families should care for their dependent adult relatives. Yet, the burgeoning empirical literature in this area has given little attention to the ways in which family caregivers fit into the service system. Drawing on interactionist theories of the division of labour, this paper employs ethnographic data, taken from a recent study, to explore the ways in which formal and informal carers negotiate ‘care’ on an adult medical ward.

Aim: List care activities of formal and informal carers and calculate costs of care for elderly people with dementia. Comparison with those not suffering from dementia (control group) at home and in residential settings. Methods: The combined methodology of a retrospective questionnaire and a prospective diary was used to collect individual data on the use of health care (professional and informal care). Results and conclusions: For home care, we found that professional care and costs of materials does not differ in any significant way between the dementia group and the control group.

The article reports on the fundraising effort of Anne Holmes, an elder of Righead United Reformed Church in East Kilbride, Scotland, for the charity South Lanarkshire Young Carers Forum.

Formal and informal caregivers' views on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions in dementia care were assessed using semi-structured qualitative interviews. Both caregiver groups were very little aware of available ICT solutions and the technological progress in this area. The analysis revealed three overarching themes: (i) barriers of ICT use in dementia care, (ii) expected benefits, and (iii) desired ICT functions or characteristics.

This study forms part of a larger European programme investigating the transition from home care to long-term care (LTC) facility in people with dementia (PwD) at the margins of LTC. The aim of this study was to explore the factors associated with depressive symptomatology in PwD in different settings.

Reports on the increase in the number of young people who care for other individuals with disability, illness, or health problem in Great Britain, according to a study commissioned by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. Number of people who carried out a caring role based on a 2001 census; Concerns on the caregivers.

This paper reports key findings from a study of young people’s engagement in ‘atypical’ activities in their families. The project focused on young caring and language brokering as two roles that are not assumed to be ‘normal’ activities for children and young people. The findings presented are from a survey of 1002 young people and from one‐to‐one interviews with a sample selected from the survey sample. The voices of young people in the interview study are used in the paper to illustrate the diverse range of childhood experiences.

This article provides information on the movements into and out of paid work by mid-life women. This is a group whose representation in the paid workforce is growing as population ageing proceeds and as educational qualifications expand. It is also a group that will be critical to any labour supply response to the economic challenges posed by population ageing. However, current understandings of the needs and circumstances of mid-life women in paid work are limited.

Improving responsiveness to the needs of older people from minority ethnic communities has been emphasised as a goal in England since the publication of the National Service Framework for Older People in 2001. Despite this, people from minority ethnic groups consistently give poorer ratings of their health services than ‘majority’ populations, both in England and across many other health-care systems. Language barriers have been shown to play a particularly important role, and appear to be a stronger predictor of perceived quality of care than ethnic origin per se.

A common theme in the literature on care-giving is the issue of ‘hidden’ carers, that is, people who undertake caring roles and responsibilities, yet do not identify themselves as carers. One reason people do not recognise themselves as carers relates to the nature of the caring relationship. When providing care for a family member, intra-familial bonds of love and reciprocity do not encourage parties to view the relationship as anything other than a ‘normal’ familial relationship.