Informal caregiving research, policy and practice

Speaker details
Yun-Hee Jeon (yun-hee.jeon@sydney.edu.au) University of Sydney
Event contact
Ruth Henworth (r.henworth@soton.ac.uk) Southampton
Lead technician
Service Line (serviceline@soton.ac.uk) Southampton

Event resources

Link for Presentation

 Seminar Outline

 Background: Issues concerning informal carers (‘carers’ here after) have gained prominence on a number of fronts in recent times in Australia and internationally. According to the latest statistics, approximately 2.5 million people in Australia provide caring assistance for their family and friends, of which twenty percent have primary caring roles. Since the instigation of government policy encouraging non-institutionalised care for people with mental and physical illness, disabilities, and frailty, the community has relied increasingly on carers to provide vital support.

Aim: To begin a dialogue with others working in the areas of informal caregiving with a view to establishing international collaborative opportunities. The Sydney group has identified a number of areas of interest: policy development and implementation, health & well-being, educational and support needs, needs of specific groups (e.g. rural and remote, indigenous, and young/elderly carers) and the experiences of carers. Spanning these are health professional/carer interactions and relationships, and the sustainability of informal caring.

Content of the presentation: During the first 20 minutes, Yun-Hee will lead the presentation providing 1) an overview of her work on carers of people with chronic illness, 2) an introduction to a research proposal on comparisons of carer support policies in 5 OECD countries, and 3) a brief summary of a newly developed online forum for students and staff who have interest in informal caregiving research (Caregiving Research, Policy & Practice Network). This will be followed by brief 5-minute presentations by Kim Foster and Kate White who will briefly elaborate on their areas of interest in caregiving research (mental health and cancer).

The remaining 30 minutes will be devoted to an open discussion around informal caregiving research by all participating members of the WUN, with an aim to develop ways through which we can build an international collaboration in this area and secure funding to further the study. More detailed information will be sent out to all parties by the 23rd of April. In the meantime we raise some potential topics/questions for discussion, including:

• Future directions for health care professionals’ (particularly nurses’) practices and support of informal carers

• Status of carer policies and programs

• Strategies to establish collaborative work (e.g. Online forum, Skype, & Email discussion)

These are just thoughts from us and we look forward to sharing our ideas together at the seminar. Please come along and join us in this exciting opportunity for discussion.