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The article’s aim is to analyse the way in which informal care has become the object of public policy in Portugal. The law is compared with those of other European countries, and the article identifies issues around the framing of the law and where it leads to adverse consequences and social risks to family carers. Two focus groups were conducted with caregivers. A thematic content analysis allowed the identification of difficult caregiving experiences and gender inequalities throughout the cycle of family life. Selectivity criteria, based on income, limit access for thousands of carers in need, and the new care regulation has become a policy to combat poverty.
Homecare providers face acute staff shortages, yet identifying new candidates with values aligned to person-centred care is challenging. This study aimed to develop and provisionally evaluate situational judgement tests to support recruitment. A total of 11 in-depth interviews with homecare workers yielded 59 ‘critical incidents’ in which person-centred values were tested. Draft scenarios were developed alongside behavioural response options, and a scoring key was devised by 15 people with lived experiences. After piloting, the final situational judgement tests comprised 11 scenarios with 63 response options. Homecare providers reported high acceptability and feasibility, feeling that the situational judgement tests could support recruitment. Future research will test their psychometric properties.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore stark gendered care inequalities and the inadequacy of care provision across states. This article presents a feminist-ethics-of-care-informed discourse analysis of the representation of care that emerged at the Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality – an innovative government-created citizen deliberation process. It identifies how care was represented as a ‘problem’ of both gender inequality and the market, and uncovers key silences, which ignored care as a universal need of all citizens and the significance of care networks to sustaining caring. We propose the necessity of ethics-of-care-based understandings to address post-pandemic care challenges.
University provides a unique context for carers and care workers; however, there is a paucity of research aimed at understanding experiences of caring, specifically for self-harm, within this setting. This article reports on 24 interviews with informal carers and professional care workers (aged 18–55 years) with experience of supporting students who self-harm during their time at a UK University. Identifying with the role of care, understanding self-harm and the challenges of providing support in a university environment were explored. Findings highlight key areas for universities and student support to address in order to support students, family members and professionals in caring roles.
Unpaid carers form the backbone of health and care systems. Caregiving can be rewarding but can also diminish carer well-being. Many policies recognise that outcome-focused assessments are the foundation of effective support. In practice, carers can struggle to access these, preventing the realisation of carer-oriented policy goals. This systematic search and review explored literature concerning adult carer outcome assessment, retrieving 21 eligible studies spanning work in five countries. A narrative synthesis highlighted the skilled nature of the practice involved, alongside long-standing implementation barriers. We make evidence-based recommendations for policy implementation, with potential to improve outcomes for carers, practitioners and organisations.
Old age is still an under-researched stage in the lives of people with a learning disability. Providing support to people towards the end of their lives can be challenging for services and involves complex ethical decision-making processes. This study explores the experiences of social care staff in two life-sharing communities where adults with a learning disability and staff live together. Four main themes were identified, highlighting different dimensions of care. These included an emphasis on relational care, responsive care and collaborative care, and an acknowledgement of barriers to care and caring that allowed people to live and die within the communities.
There is an urgent need to deepen understanding of the particular experience of family caregivers of people with early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. In this effort, we aim to identify the socio-demographic variables associated with social support, self-efficacy and coping strategies. Not belonging to the family lineage carrying the disease-causing mutation, having secondary or professional education, and caring for a relative in the early stages of dementia are associated with better coping tools. However, belonging to the family lineage carrying the mutation increases the use of passive coping, escape or emotional discharge, which risks adverse psychological outcomes.
Reablement has been positioned as a superior care ideal distinct from home care. Drawing on cross-national ethnographic data, this article instead demonstrates how the continuity and interdependency between reablement and conventional home care is more significant than suggested by policy rhetoric. Findings highlight the continuities and overlaps between activating and compensatory care, for example, how compensatory care might take the form of psychosocial reablement, activating and enabling even the frailest clients to age in place. The article concludes by pointing to the dangers of a narrow conception of reablement and argues for the benefits of more focused attention on clients’ psychosocial well-being.
In this article, a methodological proposal for the analysis of the state’s actions on care is developed. We consider care as a way of inhabiting the world, and from this conception, we further argue it is a way of governing. Then, we elaborate on some considerations on the state’s field of action in care matters. Next, we propose a methodology to identify and classify those state actions that can be considered care actions. Finally, we exemplify its use with the Mexican federal budget of 2022. We find that care policies receive only 0.4 per cent of the total budget.
Many family carers of older people living with dementia report reduced quality of life, but limited research has investigated what they believe could improve it. Our thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 23 family carers questions the standardisation of carer support and the appropriateness of the current scope of services, and suggests strengthening carers’ independent right to support. We propose the notion of a ‘care–life balance’, which also draws attention to the different logics inherent in informal and formal care that future service development should seek to reconcile to better support families affected by dementia.
