Editors:Borbála Göncz (CUB), Ágnes Győri (HUN-REN IS), Márta Kiss (HUN-REN GKAC) Attila Gulyás (HUN-REN CSS), László Lőrincz (CUB), Irmina Matonyte (MAL, Vilnius), Simon Milton (CUB), Jelena Pesic (Univ. of Beograd), Andrew Ryder (CUB)
Editor in Chief:Márton Medgyesi (CUB)
Editorial Board
Tamás Bartus (CUB), Éva Fodor (CEU), György Lengyel (CUB), László Letenyei (CUB), Beáta Nagy (CUB), Zoltán Szántó (CUB), Lilla Vicsek (CUB)
Advisory Board
Attila Bartha (CUB), Heinrich Best (Univ. of Jena), József Böröcz (Rutgers Univ.), Bruno Dallago (Univ. of Trento), Menno Fenger (Erasmus University, Rotterdam), Anuska Ferligoj (Univ. of Ljubljana), Max Haller (Univ. of Graz), John Higley (Univ. of Texas, Austin), Ildikó Husz (HUN-REN GKAC), Michal Illner (Inst. of Sociology, CAS, Prague), Csaba Jelinek (CEU), Zúza Kusa (Inst. of Sociology, SAS, Bratislava), Olga Kutsenko (Univ. of Kiev), Mihály Laki (HUN-REN IS), David Lane (Univ. of Cambridge), Mladen Lazic (Univ. of Beograd), József Péter Martin (TI, Budapest), Attila Melegh (CUB), Maria Nawojczyk (Univ. AGH, Cracow), Vadim Radaev (High School of Economics, Moscow), Jose Real-Dato (Univ. Almeira), Kinga Szabó-Tóth (Univ. Miskolc), Judit Takács (HUN-REN IS), Károly Takács (Linköping Univ.), István György Tóth (Tárki, Budapest), Camelia Florela Voinea (Univ. of Bucharest)
Informal Family Carers’ Need for State-Guaranteed Support. What are the Implications for Social Policy?
Laimutė Žalimienė, Jolita Junevičienė
Abstract
The article uses an interpretive and qualitative framework to analyze elderly care policy with a focus on the instrumental effectiveness of this policy. The framework of the research offers an understanding of informal carers needs for formal support at the level of social policy measures. The micro-level inquiry, i.e., interviews with informal elderly carers, both revealing caregiver burden and evaluating their need for formal (social policy) support, is demonstrating how qualitative inquiry can inform about shortages of this policy. The findings of the research suggest that formal support for informal caregivers in Lithuania is not adequate to their multifaceted care burden and should be therefore developed to encompass both direct and indirect support measures for informal carers.
Keywords
informal family care; care burden; need for formal support; social policy measures; qualitative research