Caregiving Systems Informal and Formal Helpers Social Structure and Aging Series

Caregiving has emerged as a critical issue in the second half of the life cycle. With the growth of the older population, there have been dramatic increases in the number of people needing care and assistance. The responsibility for care typically falls on families at a time when they have limited resources to meet these needs. At a societal level, the need for care for growing numbers of disabled elders poses a major challenge for how to organize supportive services in an efficient and responsive system.

Bringing together multiple perspectives on caregiving, the authors' explore informal and formal family caregiving and the pivotal issue of how these systems interface and interact. An overview of this variation is provided by examining family caregiving from three perspectives:

* the effects of culture on helping patterns and family responsibility,

* how different disabilities affect patterns of family care, and

* longitudinal perspectives on the impact that caregiving has on family members.

Contents: K.W. Schaie, Preface. Part I:Informal Systems of Care.S.H. Zarit, Introduction to Part I. E. Yu, W.T. Liu, Z-Y. Wang, P.S. Levy, R. Katzman, M-Y. Zhang, G-Y. Qu, F-F. Chen, Caregivers of the Cognitively Impaired and the Disabled in Shanghai, China. L.C. Yu, Intergenerational Transfer of Resources Within Policy and Cultural Contexts. L.M. Burton, S. Sörensen, Temporal Context and the Caregiver Role: Perspectives from Ethnographic Studies of Multigeneration African-American Families. R. Morycz, Caregiving Families and Cross-Cultural Perspectives. W.R. Avison, R.J. Turner, S. Noh, K.N. Speechley, The Impact of Caregiving: Comparisons of Different Family Contexts and Experiences. A.M. Matthews, Issues in the Examination of the Caregiving Relationship. R. Schulz, G.M. Williamson, R. Morycz, D.E. Beigel, Changes in Depression Among Men and Women Caring for an Alzheimer's Patient. M.A. Smyer, Caregiving Research: Juggling While Walking. L.I. Pearlin, S.H. Zarit, Research into Informal Caregiving: Current Perspectives and Future Directions. Part II:Formal Systems of Care.S.H. Zarit, Introduction to Part II. C. Harrington, Social Health Maintenance Organizations: An Innovative Financing and Service Delivery Model. D. Brannon, Are SHMOs Remedies to Bureaucracy? G. Niederehe, Public Policy Issues Related to the SHMO Demonstrations and Alzheimer's Disease. L. Lévesque, Québec Home-Care Services: A Program at the Local Community Level. C.J. Whitlatch, The Direction of Home-Based Community Care in Québec: The Effects on Caregiving Families. J.T. Mullan, Barriers to the Use of Formal Services Among Alzheimer's Caregivers. M.A.P. Stephens, Understanding Barriers to Caregivers' Use of Formal Services: The Caregiver's Perspective. R.A. Kane, J.D. Penrod, Family Caregiving Policies: Insights from an Intensive Longitudinal Study. A.L. Townsend, Methodological Issues Confronting Research on Service Use Among Caregiving Families. S.H. Zarit, L.I. Pearlin, Family Caregiving: Integrating Informal and Formal Systems for Care.