Author
CONN Lorna;
Title
Literature review to inform the inspection of social care support services for carers of older people in Northern Ireland .
Publisher
Northern Ireland. Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. Social Services Inspectorate, 2006
Summary
This literature review was produced to inform the development of standards for the Social Services Inspectorate's Inspection of Social Care Support Services for Carers of Older People.
Context
The aim of the inspection was to evaluate support services across the four Health and Social Services Board areas against draft standards which have been developed after comprehensive consultation with the statutory, voluntary, education and private sectors. Particular attention was paid to ensuring that both individual carers and carers' groups were central to the consultation process and informed the draft standards development and the inspection process.
Contents
The literature review highlights the historical development of services for carers, examines the extent of caring and looks at both national and international developments over recent years. In particular, it identifies what carers value, which should inform the development of services within both the statutory and voluntary sector and enhance support for carers in their important and invaluable caring role. A foreword explaining the aims and definitions is followed by an introduction outlining the history of the recognition of caring (a term which only began to appear in the literature in the 1970s) and research on caring in its own right. Sections discuss historical development, definitions of carers, the extent of caring, characteristics of carers, age, gender, race and diversity, duration of caring, poverty, social class, policy/legislative basis and tensions in policy, what carers value, the complexity of caring, perceptions of family involvement in caring and the impact on service provision, factors impacting in uptake of services, and international perspectives.
Conclusion
The development of professional practice both in assessing carers' needs and in providing appropriate services to meet those needs represents a significant challenge. Research has focused on specific areas of care giving, but has been limited, regarding the duration and types of care provided within Northern Ireland and the extent to which ethnic minority groups are able to access services. Additionally, little is known regarding assessment practice and how best to involve carers in service planning and delivery. There is insufficient clarity regarding what constitutes support services for carers as opposed to services for the care-for person and the extent to which agencies are responding appropriately to carers' needs. Progress has been made in carers' rights compared with other European countries and Australia . In the UK the political will exists to advance service provision for carers and to further involve them in the planning of such services. Statutory agencies continue to strive to find mechanisms for identifying carers. Professionals need to receive additional training to continue to identify and respond to carers in an individual, empowering, skilled and sensitive manner. An examination of progress regarding carers' assessments, the extent to which social care services meet the needs of carers and best practice in carer involvement are essential pre-requisites for the systematic planning of future work in this area.
72 references
ISBN 0 946932 18 2