We are the UK’s leading publisher of books on Ageing and Gerontology and our titles fill a clear gap in the current literature. The list interrogates the challenges of an ageing population, push forward knowledge and reframe perspectives.
Central to this are the international and comparative works in the Ageing in a Global Context series, published in association with the British Society of Gerontology, and the Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies journal.
Austria has been classified as ‘preliminary’ in terms of policies for young carers. Against this backdrop, we ask how young carers experience their situation, to what extent existing support measures meet their needs and what gaps remain. We demonstrate that the few measures addressing young carers specifically have mainly focused on providing information and counselling. In contrast, young carers underline the need for recognition of the diverse forms and particularities of young caring across various institutions and fields of practice and the implementation of policies that address the long-term implications and social risks associated with young caring.
This article investigates the subjectivities of home-based eldercare workers in the context of the organization of care and the neoliberal transformation of welfare regimes in Sweden and Türkiye. Through a thematic analysis of interviews, two main findings emerge: first, despite differing welfare regimes, the subjectivities of home-based eldercare workers in both Türkiye and Sweden converge due to neoliberal transformations driven by marketization trends in the organization of care; and, second, complex and intersecting power dynamics, including race, gender, and migration status, exacerbate the vulnerability of eldercare workers to sexual harassment stemming from dehumanization and objectification.
Family caregivers develop considerable expertise in managing daily life and share this expertise in online peer support groups. A media analysis was conducted to evaluate whether digital tools meet family caregivers’ needs and requirements, especially concerning social learning and innovation processes, finding that existing German-speaking tools meet family caregivers’ needs to a low degree. An evidence-based criterion catalogue for the evaluation of digital tools assisting peer groups of family caregivers is developed, and a need for the development and evaluation of functions and features that specifically support social learning and innovation processes is specified.
Care is activist when acts of care produce acts of citizenship: acts of breaking the dominant models of being responsible. This article has the theoretical objective of parsing how some acts of care become activist because they subvert the dominant norms of involvement and produce new ways of being mutually linked. They break established habits and social habitus, and they require new ways of acting and responding. This is what allows us to reinterpret care as a subversive practice, reshaping the political, affective and ethical boundaries. This can generate the condemnation and criminalisation of care in response.
This study represents the experiences of informal carers of people with dementia concerning periods of transition into formal care. Retrospective interviews with 18 carers identified the key narratives: ‘This is why I had to’, ‘They said I need to’ and ‘It was a last resort’. These indicate a sense of carers’ responsibility in decision making and the undesirable assumptions around the move. However, the narrative of ‘I made the right decision’ was common after transition. Findings represent the nuanced carer experience around transitions, providing insight into the experiences of families living with dementia and informing future care planning.
Using a propensity score matching approach, this study evaluates the effect of caring on the physical health, mental health and subjective well-being of Chilean older people. The average treatment effect was not significant in any of the outcomes to physical health. However, older carers – and those who care intensely – were more likely to have depressive and anxious symptomatology and lower life satisfaction than older non-carers. Interventions should consider strategies that favour mental health and avoid caregiver burden, considering the interaction between caring and the challenges of ageing. This could improve the quality of life of carers and those being cared for.
We explored carers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in England to identify long-term impacts and implications, and to suggest future support for caregivers. Data were collected during COVID-19 rapid response studies from carers participating in a British longitudinal cohort study. Semi-structured interview data were compared to accounts from previous interviews conducted during the first 18 months of the pandemic. There was indication of some return to pre-pandemic lifestyles, but without appropriate support, carers risked reaching crisis point. Evidence points to a requirement for assessment and management of support needs to ensure well-being and sustainable dementia caregiving.
