Supported to Care

1
Supported to Care?

• Tim Kelly
• Chair of Social Work
• University of Dundee

2
Aims of Study

• To establish carers views about the quality of
  existing support services across Scotland
• Provide evidence of how existing support services
  improve carers lives from the carers
  perspectives and
• Identify gaps in existing service provision for
  carers.

3
Research Methodology

• Mixed-Methods
• Survey - 3000 distributed by Princess Royal Trust
  for Carers and Crossroads Scotland targeted at
  carers from urban rural and remote and
  accessible rural areas. Plus online version.
  Survey comprised of a combination of Likert
  format questions, closed and open-ended
  questions.
• Focus groups - Designed to explore some of the
  issues that emerged from the questionnaire. Like
  the survey, the groups were targeted at carers
  from urban rural and remote and accessible
  rural areas.

4
Areas covered in the questionnaire

• demographic details about the carer and the
  person being cared for
• use of 16 different services that may be
  supportive to carers plus an opportunity to
  identify other services they may use
• quality ratings for each of the services used
• how each service helped the carer or the person
  they were caring for
• feelings of support
• informal support

5
Areas covered in the questionnaire

• health impacts of caring
• experiences with carers assessments
• accessing services
• required services and supports
• breaks from caring
• professionals attention to carers needs and
• general experiences about services for carers.

6
16 Identified Services Rated by Respondents

• Information and Advice
• Carers Support Group
• Assistance with Form Filling
• Information to Support Carer from Social Work
• Residential Respite
• Home Based Respite
• Social, Recreational or Other Activities Provided
  by a Support Organisation
• Emotional Support or Listening Ear
• Information to Support Carer from Health Care
  Professionals
• Continence Care Information
• Moving and Handling Training
• Any Other Training
• Counselling
• Advocacy
• Cleaning Service
• Meals on Wheels

7
Data Analysis

• Quantitative data from questionnaire descriptive
  statistics and non-parametric analysis was used
  to make comparisons where appropriate (SPSS)
• Qualitative data from questionnaire thematic
  content analysis (Excel)
• Focus group transcripts thematic content
  analysis (N-Vivo 7)

8
Characteristics of Respondents

• 355 respondents (response rate 9.7)
• 80 of the respondents were women (n280).
• 31 of the respondents were women caring for
  their husbands
• 27 of the respondents were caring for their
  disabled children
• The average age of the respondents was 56.2 years
  and they ranged from 25 to 85 years of age

9
Characteristics of Respondents

• providing care for a mean of nearly 11 years
• providing care seven days a week for 20 hours a
  day
• caring for people with a range of serious
  illnesses or disabilities across the age
  spectrum.
• Heavy duty carers
• 72 reported at least one negative impact on
  their mental or physical health.
• 44 reported feeling Unsupported or Very
  Unsupported.
• 48 reported caring alone

10
Positive about services.but

• Each of the 16 identified services were rated
  positively by respondents - 82 of the quality
  responses were Good or Excellent
• But 44 reported feeling unsupported
• And nearly half reported caring alone

11
Drop in the bucket

• services they received were not of sufficient
  frequency or magnitude, they had great
  difficulties in accessing services and they
  experienced difficulties in finding information
  that they needed to support them in their caring
  roles.

12
Gaps

• Respite
• Home care/personal care or domestic assistance
  services
• Financial assistance
• Early intervention
• Providing information

13
Gaps

• Training for carers
• Emotional support
• Training for health and social care professionals
• Better integration of health and social care
  services

14
Implications for Policy and Practice

• Provision of information
• Provision of respite
• Provision of practical support in the home
• Develop early intervention approaches across
  health and social care settings
• Make carers assessments meaningful and useful to
  carers and policy makers

15
Implications for Social Work Education

• Parsimoniously increase carer content in social
  work education
• Find creative ways for social work students to
  experience life as a carer
• Teach students how to influence organisations
• Provide CPD on carers issues

16
Discussion/Questions
17
Professor Tim Kelly School of Education, Social
Work and Community Education University of
Dundee Perth Road Dundee DD1 4HN 01382 381
534 t.b.kelly_at_dundee.ac.uk