Abstract

There is little information about the types of social support and content of assistance for informal carers. This article aims to fill this knowledge gap by studying 37 informal carers in a region of the UK. It was found that adult children were the main source of support for older carers regardless of ethnic backgrounds, minority ethnic carers supported their husband to fulfill traditional caring duties by taking care of mother-in-law in the same household. Young carers received support mainly from uncles and aunts to look after sick parents while adult carers obtained information and peer support from the internet. Surprisingly, support from neighbors was limited. Additionally, social support for carers was undermined by the stigmatization of drug and alcohol misuse and mental illness. It is proposed that different types of online support services and appropriate educational programs need to be offered to carers to set up self-help groups and tackle stigmatization associated with health problems. It is suggested that future studies can use a large representative sample to give a comprehensive picture on the contents of informal support for different types of caregivers and the impact of social support on helping informal carers to fulfill their duties.

抽象的

关于非正式照料者的社会支持类型和援助内容的信息很少。本文旨在通过研究英国某个地区的37名非正式护理人员来填补这一知识空白。研究发现，成年子女是老年人的主要抚养来源，无论其种族背景如何，少数民族族裔的照料者通过在同一个家庭中照顾婆婆来履行其传统照料职责。年轻的看护者主要是从叔叔和阿姨那里得到照顾，照顾生病的父母，而成年的看护者则从互联网上获得信息和同伴的支持。令人惊讶的是，邻居的支持是有限的。此外，对毒品和酒精滥用以及精神疾病的污名化削弱了对照料者的社会支持。建议向护理人员提供不同类型的在线支持服务和适当的教育计划，以建立自助小组并解决与健康问题相关的污名化。建议将来的研究可以使用大量具有代表性的样本来全面了解针对不同类型照护者的非正式支持的内容以及社会支持对帮助非正式护理人员履行职责的影响。