Article

Government policy has directed local services to address the needs of carers as a way of maintaining care in the community. This study was initiated to enable carers to develop an information pack based upon their identified needs. Cooperative inquiry was the method used to ensure full participation of the carers. Group meetings were already in existence through a charity organization who provides a carers support network. The first author participated in a number of carers group meetings.

This study reports research on the experiences of stroke survivors and their informal carers who are receiving stroke services in the community. As part of a qualitative evaluation of a Pilot Community Stroke Service in Nottingham, England, interviews were conducted with stroke survivors, their families and friends, alongside interviews with the managers and professionals providing the service.

The article reports that Andrew Dilnot, chairman of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, has ruled out having free personal care in England. He states that free personal care will not be recommended by the commission as it will not be resilient enough if implemented. He mentions that the commission will put forward the suggestion of having partnership approach which would combine resources from state, informal carers and individuals.

Informal carers of people with Alzheimer's disease require access to high-quality information, which may be available through the Internet. Tools that have been developed to evaluate the contents of health-related web sites tend to be generic and not specific for diseases or patient groups. The aim of this study was to develop a tool that was specifically designed to evaluate web sites that provide information about Alzheimer's disease for informal carers of people with the disease. The tool was used to evaluate a sample of 15 web sites.

This cohort study, aims to explore formal care provision to stroke survivors and their informal carers in the community in the UK. An initial cohort of 105 cohabitant carers of first-time stroke patients was recruited while the stroke patient was in hospital. Structured face-to-face interviews were carried out with carers prior to discharge of the stroke patient home, at 6 weeks after discharge, and 15 months after stroke.

In this paper we explored the rationales and the processes among five Ghanaian immigrants residing in two cities in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA for providing care and support to their older adult relatives in Ghana. Although some of our participants indicated that elder care duties could sometimes be overwhelming, all expressed their willingness and desire to continue to provide care for their older adult relatives.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to delineate the particular nature of the end-of-life care experience from the perspective of family members and friends. Ideas drawn from feminist analyses of caring and the sociology of death and dying are used to illuminate study respondents' accounts.

The concept of social capital is very much an ‘adult’ concept, created by adults for adults, with children as the passive recipients of, primarily, parental social capital. The concept has been broken down into three particular subcategories – bonding (getting by), bridging (getting on) and linking (getting around). However, these subcategories equally do not relate readily to children and young people nor to different groups of young people.

Design/methodology/approach – The methodology involves a consideration of assessment criteria currently being employed and the resulting costs and limitations in providing a person centred approach. The implications of introducing new technologies such as plesiocare and mCare are then considered.

The article discusses research by Livingston, Leavey, and Manela on dementia and carer involvement and a study by Thuné-Boyle, Sampson, and Jones on the understanding of informal carers' and healthcare professionals of advanced dementia and their attitudes towards end of life care. Livingston's research identified five core problematic areas including accessing dementia-related services, care homes, and legal / financial matters.