Addressing the needs of informal carers: a neglected area of nursing practice

The British government's philosophy of maintaining dependency groups in the community, coupled with the rising numbers of frail elderly and dwindling pool of informal carers, has highlighted the need for appropriate professional interventions in this area. However, a failure to adequately conceptualize the needs of carers has, in the past, resulted in interventions often being inappropriate, irrelevant or unavailable. This paper advocates a major role for the nursing profession in redressing this balance. Using the findings of a postal survey on the problems and satisfactions of caring, the authors suggest how nurses might modify their current practice to maximize their contribution to this important but neglected area of their work.