 Managing public health care policy: Who's being forgotten?Margaret Brunton, Claire Jordan and Christa Fouche Health Policy, 2008, vol. 88, issue 2-3, 348-358 Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the lived experience and perceptions of a sample of caregivers who are providing informal care 24Â h per day, 7 days per week for those with Alzheimer's disease in New Zealand. A mixed-method research design was used to collect and analyse the data. Semi-structured interviews with five caregivers and the completion of a questionnaire survey by 64 full-time caregivers provided insight into the significant burden carried by voluntary caregivers. However, alongside their experience of negative effects on their mental and psychological health, work and financial status, new perspectives of valued self-development and enhanced support networks in their caregiving role emerged. Despite this exploratory project being limited to a small sample of caregivers, the evidence suggests that they employ coping mechanisms which need to be recognised and supported with adequate and equitable resource allocation, if policy managers desire the current level of dependence on informal caregiving for those with Alzheimer's in this country to be sustained. Keywords: Informal; caregiving; Alzheimer's; disease; New; Zealand; Health; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:88:y:2008:i:2-3:p:348-358 Access Statistics for this article Health Policy is currently edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier |
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