Grant: Operating Grant

Interest in the topic of dementia has increased in line with concerns over the capacity of the health and social care systems to address mounting needs. A key policy strategy, partly based on concerns about these rising costs, is to try to keep people at home for as long as possible, and central to achieving this, keeping family carers going. To date, much research has focused on describing and measuring the burden carried by family members caring for a relative with dementia. At the same time, efforts to reduce or relieve the burden of care are recognized to be inadequate. This project responds to this situation of increasing care needs, constrained resources and insufficient support for families by focusing attention on learning about the ways families make arrangements, mobilize resources and access formal supports to make life as good as it can be. The aim of this research is to 1) develop better understanding of how people are managing their lives so that we can know better how to help them and 2) compare the situation in Canada with practices in other countries so that we can learn from each other what works.