Support for older carers – shifting policy and organisational contexts

This session will focus on a group of carers, which is growing in number internationally but which until recently has received little policy, practice or research attention. Older people are frequently portrayed as the ‘recipients’ of care, when in fact they are also major providers of care. The four papers in this session will discuss the distinctive profile of caring in later life, what the nature of late life caring is and suggest how support for older carers might be developed. A focus on caring in later life brings into sharp focus familiar questions, such as: how do we understand the identity of a ‘carer’ when relatives do not recognise the label or two people are co-caring; what happens to the carer when the person being cared for dies or is admitted to long term care; how we understand caring embedded in a lifelong relationship; and how do we respond to carers’ needs and what they say they want? At later stages of the life course these questions generate different answers and require different policy, service and practice related responses.

The presenters are all researchers in British Universities and share a strong commitment to producing findings that are relevant and useful to carers and their representatives as well as to policy-makers and practitioners, whose job it is to develop support for carers.
The research evidence presented is relevant to an international audience, not least because the ageing of populations generally is reflected in the ageing of the carer population. All of the presenters in this Symposium have worked with carers’ organisations and/or practitioners to inform or develop their papers. The topics we will cover have considerable relevance to Carers Australia, whose members have similar interests and demands to those in the UK. The presentations will take into account key similarities and differences between Britain and other countries, including Australia.