Employment and Informal Care: Sustaining Paid Work and Caregiving in Community and Home-based Care

Abstract

Informal care provides the often hidden foundations of policies promoting care in the community and Ageing in Place. This paper examines the current impasse concerning those who are employed and seek to provide care, canvassing current and future possibilities for finding a way through the existing conflict between sustaining employment and providing informal care in the home. Focusing on the issues that emerge regarding support of older (aged) care recipients, the paper first considers the demographic, economic and democratic and governmental policy causes of the current problems. It then examines the emerging care gap expressed through the joint crisis of informal and formal care. The final section considers the solutions proposed to help re-embed care in the societies of the 21st century. These include developments related to the workplace and employment, as well as solutions concerned with providing extra services, expanding the care workforce, paying family caregivers and using technology.