Publisher's Synopsis
So many families bear the burden of caring for frail, sick or disabled family members. So many parents know the anguish of rearing disabled children. So many families share the task of caring for chronically ill members. So many adults courageously take responsibility for frail elderly parents.
Between 1992 and 1996, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation spent $1.7 million surveying 26,000 households about family caregiving. Almost 1000 cases were intensively interviewed. The result is Family Caregivers, the most comprehensive body of information on this growing social issue ever assembled.
Written in accessible prose, this book provides a voice for all those who contribute a vital community service but whose concerns are all too little acknowledged. It accompanies that voice with the information required to create and maintain the policies to support those who, for far too long, have had to bear the burden with inadequate assistance.
Edited by Hilary Schofield with Sid Bloch, Helen Herrman, Barbara Murphy, Julie Nankervis and Bruce Singh
Published with the assistance of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth).
'This comprehensive book presents the human face of caregiving and shows why it has emerged as a major area of social policy - central to aged care, disability, and gender in equalities. Schofield and her colleagues have provided a 'must read' book for researchers and policymakers and more than a few caregivers themselves.' Professor Hal Kendig, Dean of Health Sciences, University of Sydney
