Introduction

Actual arrangement of the home care and its form is usually the outcome of many substantial factors (like e.g. norms, values) and situational circumstances (i.e. the work-load of each family member, whether or not the care can be provided at home etc.). As a consequence of these, the conditions and predispositions for providing home-care for a dependent family member are different in different types of families. For instance, families that are living in their own houses in small municipalities surrounded with a dense network of informal social bonds interconnecting the core and extended family members together or even supplemented with other non-family based relationships have different presuppositions for providing home-care than nuclear families that are living in a small flat within condominium, placed in large urban area surrounded by anonymous others. Similarly, families in which at least one family member is educated in a field that is somehow connected with providing care can choose much different design of provided care than the families with no such member. Not surprisingly, families that provide care to a person with relatively low level of dependence (e.g. measured by ADL) can comply with their role of care-givers in much different way than the families in which the dependent member requires permanent personal assistance or even constant medical supervision.