User Perspectives in Long-Term Care and the Role of Informal Carers

Abstract

This chapter has the goal of re-examining and expanding the results of previous analyses conducted within the INTERLINKS project from the perspectives of two groups of users of long-term care services: first, older people who are frequently faced with difficult decisions about how to reorganise their daily lives and obtain care because of declining health and functional abilities; second, their family, friends and neighbours who form a more or less extended ‘social network’ of co-care providers, and who informally provide most of the required support, help and care.