What is it about?
Due to demographic and policy trends around the world, the incidence and intensity of unpaid care is growing, particularly amongst older people who are increasingly expected to assume responsibility for the care of themselves and their contemporaries. This book explores the experiences of older people caring for a spouse or partner and considers the ways in which policy, practice and research can fully recognise and respond to their needs.
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Why is it important?
In spite of the widespread recognition in research, policy and practice of the significant role played by unpaid carers, this recognition rarely extends to older spouse carers who form the vast majority of the older carer population.
Perspectives
Older people tend to be regarded as the passive recipients of care rather than the active providers of it. While care between older spouses is commonly seen as being normal, unencumbered by other commitments and not worthy of special attention, a view sometimes shared by older spouse carers themselves. This neglect is both reflected and reinforced by the fragmentation of research into unpaid care and older age. This has led to a lack of integration of knowledge between these two areas as well as the prevalence of a one dimensional approach to the topics being explored. Drawing on interviews with older spouse carers as well as relevant literature and statistics, it will be the purpose of this book to help to redress these omissions.
Dr Elaine Argyle
University of Nottingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Inside the World of Older Spouse Carers, January 2024, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-61578-8.
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