Family Carers and Caring: What It’s All about

Carers and caring are contemporary global issues of growing political and societal significance. Changing demographics in the UK and beyond, as well as policy drivers promoting community-based living, mean that the family is increasingly the site of care for relatives with long term support needs.

Whilst there is a plethora of literature on carers it tends to be situated in separate subject areas. For the first time Family Carers and Caring brings together a range of material and evidence about carers from different sources presented in an accessible and yet academically informed way. Milne and Larkin help to make sense of the complexities of family carers and caring, carving a coherent path through the academic, policy, socio-political, and practice terrain. Family Carers and Caring is explicitly underpinned by principles of social justice and rights, focusing on how inequalities intersect with caring.

Alisoun Milne is Professor Emerita of Social Gerontology and Social Work at the University of Kent, UK. She has been involved in work on family caring for over twenty years; this included being a member of the independent advisory committee, the Standing Commission on Carers. Alisoun has written widely on care and caring issues and is embedded in national and international care related research and practice networks.

Mary Larkin is Professor of Care, Carers and Caring at the Open University, UK. She has extensive experience of carer research and working with carers and carers organisations. Not only does she publish widely but her expertise in family caring has led to her membership of national and international bodies, committees, and commissions.