International Perspectives on Family Caregiving: Informal Care for People with Vulnerabilities

There is an increased interest to turn the spotlight not only on the needs and experiences of service users, but also to understand the complexity of issues that their caregivers' experience. An informal caregiver is any relative, spouse/partner, friend or neighbour who has a significant personal relationship with and provides a broad range of assistance and care for, an adult or a child with a chronic or disabling physical or mental health condition. This edited collection provides a comprehensive read on the caregiving experience within a range of health conditions and population groups.

Framed by an introductory, the chapters focus on ten specific areas such as caring for older people, children, and young people with learning disabilities, those with mental health conditions, people requiring care because of end-stage renal conditions, cardio-vascular illness, stroke, cancer, HIV, physical disabilities, and traumatic brain injuries. Delving into background and context; relevant theoretical frameworks; common caregiving problems/issues; the implications for the person receiving care, the implications for the caregiver, and supportive measures/recommendations to enable caregivers, International Perspectives on Family Caregiving: Informal Care for People with Vulnerabilities enables readers to gain an empathetic understanding of issues encountered by informal care providers and thus enables a basis for working with various issues encountered by them.

Meeting the need for a text for the academic community which recognises informal caregiving experiences, this is compelling reading for scholars of social work, health and social care, medical sociology, nursing, psychology, and counselling and allied disciplines.