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Models of Carers: How Do Social Care Agencies Conceptualise Their Relationship with Informal Carers?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Abstract

Carers occupy an ambiguous position within the social care system. Services are predominantly structured around the dependant rather than the carer, and this has important consequences for their delivery and evaluation. Many of the problems that arise in thinking about carer issues relate to confusion over the way the relationship between social care agencies and informal carers should be perceived. The paper outlines three models that provide frames of reference for this relationship: carers as resources; carers as co-workers; and carers as co-clients. The tensions between these are then used to explore the contradictions of policy in this field.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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