CAN THE EXPERIENCE OF CARING AT HOME AFFECT CARERS RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY CARE SERVICES

This paper investigates whether informal carers' experience of caring for their dying cancer patients at home affects their retrospective ev aluation of the services received by these patients from community nur ses, GPs, and the health and social services in general. Analysis was conducted on a sub-sample of the Regional Study of Care for the Dying (RSCD), a retrospective survey of family members and others who knew m ost about the last year of life of a random sample of people who died in 20 health districts in the UK in 1990. The sub-sample consisted of 1 858 carers of people who died from cancer (ICD, 140-208). The result s showed statistically significant associations between carers' satisf action with community nurses, GPs, and the health and social services in general and their perceptions that caring at home was a rewarding a ctivity, and that their social activities were severely or fairly rest ricted. Carers' satisfaction with all providers was also more likely t o have been reported by those who reported having had no need for more home help. All this suggests the importance of supporting carers to e nable them to fulfil their caretaking role and to cope with caring at home. This in turn could lead to an increase in their level of accepta bility of the services provided.