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Supporting older families: making a real difference
- Author:
- MAGRILL Dalia
- Publisher:
- Mental Health Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 107p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Older families are a priority group for support, but it is important that their needs are linked in to the mainstream agendas of services for people with learning disabilities, older people and carers generally. It is important that we make sure that older families have their needs met now, and are supported to remain together for as long as they wish whilst planning for the future with confidence. However, it is equally important that we get things right for older families now so that others who are growing older do not face the same anxieties, uncertainty and fears that so many older family carers have lived with for decades.
Time for care: exploring time use by carers of older people
- Authors:
- BOWES Alison, DAWSON Alison, ASHWORTH Rosalie
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 40(8), 2020, pp.1735-1758.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The paper focuses on temporal aspects of informal caring for older people. Limitations of large-scale surveys in capturing such data are noted and time-use methodology, despite its own limitations, is proposed as a promising alternative. Adopting a critical perspective on time that includes carers’ own conceptualisations, we report the findings of a qualitative study of carers’ time use. Sixty-two interviews with carers, male/female, co-resident/not co-resident, employed/not employed, and located across Great Britain were conducted. Analysis considered people's own diverse and ambiguous views of their care activities. Carers’ accounts of their time revealed non-linear experiences and a sense of being permanently on call. Interviewees often travelled distances to engage in support activities with or for older people. Changes over time were pervasive, increasing or reducing care requirements. Unanticipated events could precipitate radical changes in time use. Managing time, exercising temporal agency, was particularly apparent in accounts of care, employment, other family responsibilities and choices about friendship. Measurement of carers’ time use which draws on the conceptual foundation of carers’ own perspectives on time may provide more effective quantitative understanding of the temporal aspects of caring. It should not pre-define time, must grasp a variety of tasks, take account of intermittent activity, incorporate the 24–7 experience of many carers and demonstrate how caring time interacts with other time. (Publisher abstract)
From provider to enabler of care? reconfiguring local authority support for older people and carers in Leeds, 2008 to 2013
- Author:
- YEANDLE Sue
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Service Research, 42(2), 2016, pp.218-232.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This article explores developments in the support available to older people and carers (i.e., caregivers) in the city of Leeds, United Kingdom, and examines provision changes during a period characterised by unprecedented resource constraint and new developments in national-local governance. Using documentary evidence, official statistics, and findings from recent studies led by the author, the effects of these changes on service planning and delivery and the approach taken by local actors to mitigate their impact are highlighted. The statistical data show a marked decline in some types of services for older people during a 5-year period during which the city council took steps to mobilise citizens and develop new services and system improvements. The analysis focuses on theories of social quality as a framework for analysis of the complex picture of change related to service provision. It concludes that although citizen involvement and consultations exerted a positive influence in delivering support to some older people and carers, research over a longer timescale is needed to show if these changes are adequate to protect older people and carers from the effects of ongoing budgetary constraints. (Publisher abstract)
Informal carers and private law
- Author:
- SLOAN Brian
- Publisher:
- Hart Publishing
- Publication year:
- 2012
- Pagination:
- 290p.
- Place of publication:
- Oxford
Every day, large numbers of altruistic individuals, in the absence of any legal duty, provide substantial services for elderly and disabled people. In doing so, many such informal carers suffer financial and other disadvantages. This book considers the scope for a "private law" approach to rewarding, supporting or compensating carers, an increasingly vital topic in the context of an ageing population and the need for savings in public expenditure. Adopting a comparative approach, the book explores the recognition of the informal carer and his or her relationship with the care recipient within diverse fields of private law, from unjust enrichment to succession. Aspects of the analysis include the importance of a promise of a reward from the care recipient and the appropriate measure of any remedy. In considering the potential for expansion of a "private law" approach for carers, the book addresses the fundamental and controversial question of the price of altruism. Contents include: Introduction; property law claims: proprietary estoppel and constructive trusts; statutory enforcement of testamentary promises; unjust enrichment; family provision; ‘inter vivos’ provision on the breakdown of caring relationships; undue influence; and conclusion.
Older carers in the UK: are there really gender differences? New analysis of the Individual Sample of Anonymised Records from the 2001 UK Census
- Authors:
- DEL BONO Emilia, SALA Emanuela, HANCOCK Ruth
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 17(3), May 2009, pp.267-273.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The aim of this paper is to disentangle the role of gender and partnership status in the caring commitments of older people (age 65 and over). Logistic and interval regression models are applied to individual records from the 2001 UK Census to estimate: (1) the impact of gender on the likelihood of being a carer; (2) the impact of gender on the hours of care provided; and (3) the impact of gender on the likelihood of being a carer for different groups defined by marital status. In the general population the share of women who provide care is higher than the corresponding share of men, but men have a higher probability of being carers among people aged 65 or above. This phenomenon is largely explained by gender differences in marital status. As older men are more likely to be married, and married people are more likely to be carers, higher levels of caring among older men were observed. Once differences in marital status are accounted for, the relationship between gender and care provision among older people is overturned. It was found that without controlling for household size, limiting long-term illness or marital status, the odds of being an informal carer are lower for older women than men. Once these factors are accounted for, older women have higher odds of caring than older men. Restricting the sample to care providers, and controlling for the same factors, it is shown that older women supply more hours of care per week than older men. Gender differences in the provision of care among older people disappear only when considering married individuals and adjusting for the presence of other household residents affected by a limiting long-term illness.
What do people value when they provide unpaid care for an older person?: a meta-ethnography with interview follow-up
- Authors:
- AL-JANABI Hareth, COAST Joanna, FLYNN Terry N.
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 67(1), July 2008, pp.111-121.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Government policies to shift care into the community and demographic changes mean that unpaid (informal) carers will increasingly be relied on to deliver care, particularly to older people. As a result, careful consideration needs to be given to informal care in economic evaluations. Current methods for economic evaluations may neglect important aspects of informal care. This paper reports the development of a simple measure of the caring experience for use in economic evaluations. A meta-ethnography was used to reduce qualitative research to six conceptual attributes of caring. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were then conducted with carers of older people to check the attributes and develop them into the measure. Six attributes of the caring experience comprise the final measure: getting on, organisational assistance, social support, activities, control, and fulfilment. The final measure (the Carer Experience Scale) focuses on the process of providing care, rather than health outcomes from caring. Arguably this provides a more direct assessment of carers' welfare. Following work to test and scale the measure, it may offer a promising way of incorporating the impact on carers in economic evaluations.
Sustainable care: theorising the wellbeing of caregivers to older persons
- Authors:
- KEATING Norah, MCGREGOR J. Allister, YEANDLE Sue
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Care and Caring, 5(4), 2021, pp.611-630.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
The term ‘care crisis’ is invoked to denote chronic system failures and bad outcomes for the people involved. This paper presents a comprehensive wellbeing framework and illustrate its practicality with evidence of negative outcomes for those who provide care. This study finds evidence of substantial material and relational wellbeing failures for family carers and for care workers, while there has been little interest in carers’ views of their ability to live the life that they most value. Understanding and improving wellbeing outcomes for carers is an essential component of sustainable care, which requires the wellbeing of the different actors in care arrangements. (Edited publisher abstract)
Using images in focus groups with older carers
- Authors:
- GREENWOOD Nan, POUND Carole
- Journal article citation:
- Working with Older People, 24(2), 2020, pp.95-103.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how providing a wide variety of visual images facilitated discussions amongst older informal carers in focus groups. Design/methodology/approach: In all, 72 older (aged 70+ years) informal carers took part in nine focus groups discussing their experiences as older carers. Participants were provided with a wide selection of different, freely available printed images which included abstract and humorous images and countryside scenes. Findings: These older carers appeared to enjoy using these pictures to facilitate introducing themselves and to describe their diverse caring experiences. Sharing often challenging experiences using the images and visual metaphors appeared to support the group to discuss difficult, sensitive issues in often light-hearted ways. Research limitations/implications: This approach appeared to enhance data collection with these older participants in an enjoyable way by helping them focus on the topic at hand whilst facilitating them to give succinct descriptions of their experiences. However, further research is needed in order to be confident of the transferability of these findings to other older participant groups discussing different topics. Only informal carers were included and there were no direct comparisons with groups without images. Practical implications: Using commonly available visual images in focus groups with older carers appeared to be an effective means of encouraging participant discussions and engagement. Originality/value: To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe how using visual images facilitated focus group discussions with older informal carers. It therefore adds to the literature. (Edited publisher abstract)
Care for older people in multigenerational families: a life course analysis across four generations
- Author:
- POWELL Catherine
- Journal article citation:
- Families, Relationships and Societies, 7(1), 2018, pp.103-121.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
As the population ages, a key question is to how support older people who are in need of some form of care. This article highlights how older people may be embedded in multigenerational familial care networks. It explores the ways in which care and support for great-grandparents are worked out in multigenerational families, as well as between informal and formal sources of support. Methods involve qualitative life history interviews with five four-generation families. Findings suggest that care is worked out through a balance of care, need and support across generations. Depending on available resources, this produces a variety of support outcomes, including: home-based family care with and without supplemented professional help, sheltered accommodation with family care, institutional care as well as fluctuations between different support patterns. Supporting informal care networks through professional support can help multiple generations balance intergenerational relationships across the shifts between greater dependency and independence. (Publisher abstract)
Intergenerational flows of support between parents and adult children in Britain
- Authors:
- EVANDROU Maria, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 38(2), 2018, pp.321-351.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Understanding patterns of intergenerational support is critical within the context of demographic change, such as changing family structures and population ageing. Existing research has focused on intergenerational support at a given time in the individuals' lifecourse, e.g. from adult children towards older parents and vice versa; however, few studies have focused on the dynamic nature of such support. Analysing data from the 1958 National Child Development Study, this paper investigates the extent to which the receipt of parental help earlier in the lifecourse affects the chances of adult children reciprocating with support towards their parents later in life. The findings show that three-quarters of mid-life adults had received some support from their parents earlier in life, and at age 50 more than half were providing care to their parents. Patterns of support received and provided across the lifecourse differ markedly by gender, with sons being more likely to have received help with finances earlier in the lifecourse, and daughters with child care. The results highlight that care provision towards parents was associated with support receipt earlier in life. However, the degree of reciprocity varies according to the type of care provided by children. Such findings have implications for informal care provision by adult children towards future cohorts of older people, and by extension, the organisation of social care. (Publisher abstract)