ABSTRACT

Cost containment and the preferences of older adults are important stimuli for encouraging the provision of informal care worldwide. Nevertheless, informal caregiving can have negative effects on caregiver’s health, wellbeing, and employment opportunities. Moreover, it is questionable whether informal caregivers can substantially contribute to meeting the increasing demand for care or serve as a substitute for formally provided services. This commentary assesses strategies to remediate the negative effects of caregiving and ultimately to improve informal caregiving and to support their critical role in European long-term care systems. Cash benefits are a particularly common method of supporting informal caregivers; paid and unpaid leave, and flexible work arrangements are the most prevalent measures to support family caregivers within labor market policy, specifically. Providing training and counseling services to individuals engaged in informal care is a strategy used to support caregivers at home. Disparities in the level of support provided to informal caregivers across the European Union need to be addressed. A lack of supporting policies increases the likelihood that caregivers experience negative physical and psychosocial health problems, as well as unemployment and impoverishment.

摘要

成本控制和老年人的偏好是鼓励在全球范围内提供非正式护理的重要刺激因素。然而，非正式的看护可能会对看护者的健康、福祉和就业机会产生负面影响。此外，非正式的看护者是否可以大大有助于满足日益增长的看护需求或替代正式提供的服务，这是值得怀疑的。本评论评估了补救护理负面影响的策略，并最终改善非正式护理并支持其在欧洲长期护理系统中的关键作用。现金福利是支持非正式护理人员的一种特别常见的方法；带薪和无薪假期，具体而言，灵活的工作安排是在劳动力市场政策中支持家庭照顾者的最普遍措施。为从事非正式护理的个人提供培训和咨询服务是一种用于在家中支持护理人员的策略。需要解决在欧盟范围内向非正式护理人员提供的支持水平上的差异。缺乏支持性政策增加了看护者遭受身体和心理健康问题以及失业和贫困的可能性。