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Background: The generation of people getting older has become a public health concern worldwide. People aged 65 and above are the most at risk for Alzheimer's disease which is associated with physical and behavioral changes. This nurtures informal support needs for people living with dementia where their families together with other community members are the core providers of day to day care for them in the rural setting. Despite global concern around this issue, information is still lacking on informal support delivered to these people with dementia. Objective: Our study aimed at establishing the nature of informal support provided for people with dementia (PWDs) and its perceived usefulness in rural communities in South Western Uganda. Methods: This was a qualitative study that adopted a descriptive design and conducted among 22 caregivers and 8 opinion leaders in rural communities of Kabale, Mbarara and Ibanda districts in South Western Uganda. The study included dementia caregivers who had been in that role for a period of at least 6 months and opinion leaders in the community. We excluded trained health workers. Results: The study highlights important forms of informal support offered to PWDs such as support in activities of daily living, enabling access to medical attention, recovering misplaced items, provision of herbal remedy, informal counseling, and sourcing carers from other families to offer presence and support in the hope to impact positively on behavioral outbursts and the frustration of living with dementia. Conclusion: The study revealed various forms of informal support that are available for PWDs in South Western Uganda and stressed the role of caregivers and the perceived usefulness of the care provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges faced by parents caring for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can amplify parenting stress, though the impacts of these challenges can be alleviated by social supports. A sample of 674 parent volunteers completed a survey probing the types of social supports currently being used, what function (i.e., tangible, emotional, financial, informational) they judged them to perform, and how each of the utilised supports reduced parenting stress and was considered helpful. Results indicated that informal social supports and social media were perceived as more helpful than formal supports, which were typically perceived in a neutral manner by parents. Overall, the study indicates that addressing the support needs of parents of a child with ASD remains a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives High rates of migration contribute to the dispersal of support networks across distance. For older adults reliant on informal care, this creates a high risk of increased social isolation. In this article, we highlight the role of communication technologies in maintaining support networks and identities across distance. Building on transnational family research and on anthropological notions of "kinning," we propose that processes of distant support can be better understood through the new concept of "digital kinning." Research Design and Methods A qualitative project conducted in Australia (2016–2019) with over 150 older migrants (55+) born in nine countries comprising ethnographic interviews and observations. Analysis comprised the inductive approach of ethnographic qualitative research and theory building from cases, drawn from grounded theory traditions. Select ethnographic cases illustrate the key dimensions and benefits of "digital kinning" for older migrants. Results Digital kinning practices support the access of older migrants to (i) essential sources of social connection and support, (ii) maintenance of cultural identity, and (iii) protection of social identity, including across distance. Their effectiveness is reliant on access to affordable and reliable digital communication tools. Discussion and Implications Although essential to the well-being of older migrants, distant support networks and the digital kinning practices that sustain them receive little attention from policy makers and health practitioners. Organizations concerned with the care of older people must improve awareness of distant support networks by supporting practices of "digital kinning," ranging from including distant kin in health care plans to prioritizing digital inclusion initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how the receipt of formal, informal, and/or a combination of both types of care at home relates to older adults' perceived loneliness, life satisfaction, and day-to-day lives. Quantitative analyses using the Canadian Community Health Survey (n = 3,928) reveal that older adults who only received formal care reported lower levels of loneliness and higher levels of life satisfaction when compared with respondents who received informal or a blend of home care. Qualitative analyses of persons aged 65+ years receiving formal and informal home care in Ontario (n = 34) suggest that formal care bolstered care recipients' autonomy and reduced their sense of being a burden on family. In turn, receiving formal care served to improve these older adults' social connectedness and well-being. Findings underscore older adults' symbolic, functional, and emotional attachment to formal care services, as well as the limitations of a reliance on informal support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research indicates that victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are most likely to disclose their victimization experiences to an informal support (e.g., friend, family), and that IPV disclosures are often met with both positive (e.g., empathic support) and negative (e.g., victim blame) reactions. However, research on social reactions to disclosure largely has neglected the perspectives of disclosure recipients. Guided by the attribution framework, the current study extends prior research by assessing factors (i.e., situation-specific, individual, relational, attributional, and emotional response) related to positive and negative reactions from the perspective of disclosure recipients (N = 743 college students). Linear regression analyses indicated that positive social reactions were related to the victim being a woman, greater frequency of IPV victimization by the victim, greater frequency of IPV victimization by the disclosure recipient, less accepting attitudes toward IPV, a closer relationship with the victim, a less close relationship with the perpetrator, lower perceptions of victim responsibility, more empathy for the victim, and more emotional distress experienced by the disclosure recipient during the disclosure. Negative social reactions were associated with more accepting attitudes toward IPV, greater frequency of IPV victimization by the disclosure recipient, a less close relationship with the victim, higher perceptions of victim responsibility, and more emotional distress experienced by the disclosure recipient. Results suggest that programs to improve responses to victim disclosure should focus on decreasing IPV-supportive attitudes, increasing empathy, and assisting disclosure recipients in managing difficult emotional responses effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The vulnerability and instability of low-income mothers situated in a context with a weak public safety net make informal social support one of few options many low-income mothers have to meet basic needs. This systematic review examines (a) social support as an empirical construct, (b) the restricted availability of one important aspect of social support—informal perceived support, hereafter informal support—among low-income mothers, (c) the role of informal support in maternal, economic, parenting, and child outcomes, (d) the aspects of informal support that influence its effects, and (e) directions for future research. Traditional systematic review methods resulted in an appraisal of 65 articles published between January 1996 and May 2017. Findings indicated that informal support is least available among mothers most in need. Informal support provides some protection from psychological distress, economic hardship, poor parenting practices, and poor child outcomes. To promote informal support and its benefits among low-income families, future research can advance knowledge by defining the quintessential characteristics of informal support, identifying instruments to capture these characteristics, and providing the circumstances in which support can be most beneficial to maternal and child well-being. Consistent measurement and increased understanding of informal support and its nuances can inform intervention design and delivery to strengthen vulnerable mothers’ informal support perceptions thereby improving individual and family outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The number of older people living alone is constantly increasing. This group faces special challenges regarding remaining at home when their care needs increase, especially in later life. When no family is available, friends and neighbors, so called non-kin carers, are important sources of support., Objective: A literature review was conducted to evaluate existing research on the relevance of non-kin support for older people living alone, from initial limitations to the end of their lives, particularly when they wished to remain at home., Method: The literature search followed the criteria of a scoping review and was conducted in relevant databases and manually. A total of 22 studies were included in the analysis., Results: Older people living alone are often embedded in complex support networks. Living alone at an advanced age creates tensions between the desire for independence and the need for help. Non-kin carers primarily provide instrumental, emotional, and informational support. Challenges arise due to difficult interpersonal dynamics and the overburdening of non-kin carers, especially when those they support are at the end of their lives., Conclusion: It is important to understand care networks as a complex interplay of different actors. Future research should focus on the specific burdens on non-kin carers as well as on the dynamics of relationships in these care networks., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Background: Different kinds of chronic diseases might imply different dimensions of caregiver burden, not previously described among the caregivers to recipients from the general elder population.Aim: The main objective was to examine differences in burden between the 343 caregivers to persons with different diagnoses.Methods: A group of elderly recipients of informal care (n = 343) from the general population study ‘Good Aging in Skåne’ (GÅS) Sweden, were divided into five diagnostic groups: dementia (n = 90), heart and lung diseases (n = 48), stroke (n = 62), fractures (n = 66), depression (n = 40) and the group “other”, consisting of different diagnoses (n = 37) according to ICD-10. Differences in burden were analyzed using the Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS), a 22-item scale consisting of five dimensions: general strain, isolation, disappointment, emotional involvement and environmental burden. A total burden index comprises the mean of all the 22 items and a higher score indicates a higher burden.Results: The most common diagnosis associated to caregiving was dementia and fracture and the median hours weekly for informal support with instrumental ADL for the five diagnostic groups ranged from 7 to 45 h for spouses and from 4 to 7 h for parents. The highest proportion of caregivers scoring high total burden was seen among recipients with dementia (50%) and depression (38%); the OR for high total burden for the dementia group was 4.26 (2.29-7.92) and depression group 2.38 (1.08-5.24) adjusted for covariates like age, gender and ADL and these two groups had higher self-perception of burden in all the dimensions, especially the dimension’s emotional burden and strain.Conclusion: Informal support constitutes a substantial time for instrumental ADL for the diseased elders. Caregivers to persons with dementia and depression experience high burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite efforts to improve the measurement of low-income, nonresident fathers’ economic contributions to children in large-scale surveys, limited research has examined how survey measures of informal and in-kind support relate to other standard indicators of fathering. Drawing on data from a large sample of separated parents (N = 1,381) and matched nonresident father–child pairs (n = 846) in the Fragile Families Study, our results show that in-kind and informal support represent the same construct, and that this construct differs from both formal child support and fathers’ time with children. In comparison with formal child support, informal and in-kind support measures converged more strongly with indicators of the quality and quantity of time spent with children, consistent with recent conceptualizations of involved fathering. Informal and in-kind support measures were also more predictive of closeness in the nonresident father–child relationship, supporting qualitative research about its emotional significance in low-income families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) scholarship, there is paucity in empirical literature documenting the specific ways in which HIV-positive African-American gay men and lesbian women seek social support from caregivers, family, friends, and intimate partners. We know minimal information about how older African-American HIV-positive gay men negotiate intersections of race, age, and sexuality to gain access to informal social support. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the informal social support experiences among African-American gay men that are 50 years old and older living with HIV/AIDS. A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology data collection process included the in-depth, face-to-face interviews of 12 African-American males, ages 50 and over, diagnosed with HIV/AIDS from agencies that provided services to HIV/AIDS populations. Upon completion of data collection and transcription, the data were extracted, organized, and analyzed. Due to their multiple positions in society, older African-American gay men living with HIV/AIDS had fashioned a fragile system of support captured a loss of informal social support and relied mostly on formal social supports. From a macro implications perspective, interdisciplinary teams can help build an inclusive systematic environment for older African-American gay men living with HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental involvement plays a critical role in the development of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and can promote children's developmental and educational outcomes. This study aimed to compare mothers and fathers of children with ASD's social support and education levels in relation to their level of involvement. Participants included 107 parents (61 mothers, 46 fathers) of children with ASD aged 2 to 7 years. Three instruments measured parents' involvement, formal and informal social support, and education levels. As hypothesized, mothers reported higher levels of involvement than fathers, which related to their informal support (non-formal relatives), while fathers reported receiving greater formal support than mothers. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed unique gender differences in the predictors of parental involvement. For example, parental education positively predicted involvement only among fathers. Practical implications for services and child-family interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parent-to-parent programs provide emotional and informational support to parents of children with special needs by matching trained and experienced parents with parents needing support. This study examined the implementation and effects of a Parent-to-Parent Program in Taiwan that supported 3 families of youngsters with special needs. Based on the individual family's needs and the availability of local resources, these families were supported by 2 trained and experienced mothers of children with special needs, the staff of the family-centered early intervention center as well as the self-help parent group, and a researcher. Notwithstanding the myriad of criteria considered when matching the families before the program implementation, the fitness of the match would ultimately be determined on the basis of the initial contact or subsequent interactions between families. During the program implementation, this study found the following: (1) "natural" and well-prepared initial contact facilitated subsequent relationships; (2) understanding real needs was the key; (3) "being present" was a form of support; and (4) experienced parents could help "translate" professionals' recommendations. After the program was implemented, experienced parents needed support, too. This study concludes that "localization" is the key in implementing parent-to-parent programs. Furthermore, with more people involved in the program, trained professionals will no longer exert a dominant influence and more members of the families' informal support network can be empowered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The focus of this special issue is on how everyday or mundane materialities actively mediate health and care practices. This article extends this concern with the mundane to care itself and explores how specific materialities, such as shared spaces and everyday objects, not only mediate mundane care but enable it to happen. Our focus is on mundane help in the context of ill health, between people who are not immediate family, such as neighbours, acquaintances and others with whom we interact in our daily lives. Drawing on recent empirical studies of low‐level support in two different parts of the UK, we show how the materialities of care can mediate the affective risks associated with receiving such help. Specifically, we investigate how materialities help people to balance the expression of their vulnerability with a need to retain their dignity, a practice referred to as ‘holding one's own’. In doing so, we argue that materialities are not just the conduits for care – what care passes through – or things that mediate care. We suggest instead that materialities are part of how relationships of mundane care are constituted and maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined perceptions of Arab Palestinian women citizens of Israel that were subjected to intimate partner violence (IPV), regarding the formal and informal interventions they used to cope with the violence. Data were gathered by semi-structured interviews with 12 Arab Palestinian women citizens of Israel subjected to IPV. Results indicate that most participants had contacted informal channels, as well as formal channels, mainly welfare services and police. From the perspective of most participants, the informal channels were not effective, whereas support received from formal channels, mainly welfare services, were perceived as effective. Participants' attitude police intervention was ambivalent. Recommendations for future studies and for professionals are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study used snowball sampling of individuals known to provide informal assistance to Asian American community members with their mental health problems in a locality in the South where there has been an exponential increase of the Asian American population. The major themes found include: (1) the existence of cultural, language, knowledge, and transportation barriers and the importance of policy in addressing them; (2) the impact of the model minority myth and the need for inclusive policymaking; and (3) the unique service and policy needs of immigrants. Findings demonstrate the importance and value of including diverse Asian American individuals in mental health policymaking efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with parents employed in the service sector in the San Francisco Bay area, we find that meeting the demands of work and parenting almost invariably involved reliance on informal child care. We unpack the relationship between work schedules and specific constellations of informal child care. We show that the stability and predictability of work schedules shaped childcare arrangements. Working parents with stable, although frequently nonstandard, schedules often managed child care using a tag team parenting approach. Those with unstable schedules often engaged in a child-care scramble, in which care arrangements were pieced together on an ad hoc basis. Some parents with unstable work schedules avoided child-care instability by relying heavily on one family anchor who could consistently provide child care. On-call family support can sometimes buffer against the instability created by unstable and unpredictable work schedules, but instability in work schedules often reproduces instability at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study examined race differences in the probability of belonging to a specific social network typology of family, friends, and church members. Method: Samples of African Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites aged 55+ were drawn from the National Survey of American Life. Typology indicators related to social integration and negative interactions with family, friendship, and church networks were used. Latent class analysis was used to identify typologies, and latent class multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the influence of race, and interactions between race and age, and race and education on typology membership. Results: Four network typologies were identified: optimal (high social integration, low negative interaction), family-centered (high social integration within primarily the extended family network, low negative interaction), strained (low social integration, high negative interaction), and ambivalent (high social integration and high negative interaction). Findings for race and age and race and education interactions indicated that the effects of education and age on typology membership varied by race. Discussion: Overall, the findings demonstrate how race interacts with age and education to influence the probability of belonging to particular network types. A better understanding of the influence of race, education, and age on social network typologies will inform future research and theoretical developments in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Stroke is a major global disease that requires extensive care and support from society and relatives. The aim of this study was to identify and quantify the long-term informal support and to estimate the annual cost of informal support provided by spouses to their stroke surviving partner. Method Data were based on the 7-year follow-up of the Sahlgrenska Academy Study on Ischemic Stroke. One-third of the spouses stated that they provided support to their stroke surviving partner. The magnitude of the support was assessed with a study-specific time-diary and was estimated for independent and dependent stroke survivors based on the scores of the modified Rankin Scale. To deal with skewed data, a two-part econometric model was used to estimate the annual cost of informal support. Result Cohabitant dyads of 221 stroke survivors aged <70 at stroke onset were included in the study. Spouses of independent stroke survivors ( n = 188) provided on average 0.15 hr/day of practical support and 0.48 hr/day of being available. Corresponding figures for spouses of dependent stroke survivors ( n = 33) were 5.00 regarding practical support and 9.51 regarding being available. The mean annual cost of informal support provided for independent stroke survivors was estimated at €991 and €25,127 for dependent stroke survivor. Conclusion The opportunity cost of informal support provided to dependent midlife stroke survivors is of a major magnitude many years after stroke onset and should be considered in economic evaluations of health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on culturally appropriate services is focused on barriers to service provision; less is known about how organizations can reduce these barriers. Through qualitative interviews, this study examined how informal helpers within the Asian American community are helping individuals with unmet mental health needs and how mainstream mental health organizations might learn from their experiences. Themes identified include (a) informal assistance, (b) working with the community, (c) gaining trust, and (d) cultural and language appropriateness. By implementing some of the strategies suggested in this paper, mainstream organizations can better serve the mental health needs of Asian Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The neighbourhood may provide resources for health. It is to date unknown whether people who live in neighbourhoods with more social capital have more access to practical and emotional support by neighbours, or whether this is a resource only available to those who are personally connected to people in their neighbourhood. We investigated whether support by neighbours of people with chronic illness was related to neighbourhood social capital and to individual neighbourhood connections. Furthermore, we investigated whether support received from neighbours by people with chronic illness differed according to demographic and disease characteristics. We collected data on support by neighbours and individual connections to neighbours among 2272 people with chronic illness in 2015. Data on neighbourhood social capital were collected among 69,336 people in 3425 neighbourhoods between May 2011 and September 2012. Neighbourhood social capital was estimated with ecometric measurements. We conducted multilevel regression analyses. People with chronic illness were more likely to receive practical and emotional support from neighbours if they had more individual connections to people in their neighbourhood. People with chronic illness were not more likely to receive practical and emotional support from neighbours if they lived in a neighbourhood with more social capital. People with chronic illness with moderate physical disabilities or with comorbidity, and people with chronic illness who lived together with their partner or children, were more likely to receive support from neighbours. To gain more insight into the benefits of neighbourhood social capital, it is necessary to differentiate between the resources only accessible through individual connections to people in the neighbourhood and resources provided through social capital on the neighbourhood level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence is prevalent all across the globe and victims of domestic violence have been using different approaches for seeking help against the same. The purpose of this paper is to explore the different formal and informal support for women who have experienced domestic violence in Kashmir region. Besides the barriers to disclosure and help-seeking has also been studied, considering the socio-cultural aspect of Kashmir. The study revealed that more victims have sought help through informal means rather than formal ones and there are a good proportion of women who haven't sought any help at all. Through this paper, a set of suggestions and recommendations have also been framed for the prevention and control of the domestic violence by ensuring the proper implementation of protective laws, awareness generation, gender sensitization, community involvement and collaboration between different stakeholders, Governmental and Non-governmental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined reciprocal support networks involving extended family, friends and church members among African Americans. Our analysis examined specific patterns of reciprocal support (i.e., received only, gave only, both gave and received, neither gave or received), as well as network characteristics (i.e., contact and subjective closeness) as correlates of reciprocal support. The analysis is based on the African American subsample of the National Survey of American Life. Overall, our findings indicate that African Americans are very involved in reciprocal support networks with their extended family, friends and church members. Respondents were most extensively involved in reciprocal supports with extended family members, followed closely by friends and church networks. Network characteristics (i.e., contact and subjective closeness) were significantly and consistently associated with involvement with reciprocal support exchanges for all three networks. These and other findings are discussed in detail. This study complements previous work on the complementary roles of family, friend and congregational support networks, as well as studies of racial differences in informal support networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although the need for integrated neighborhood approaches (INAs) is widely recognized, we lack insight into strategies like INA. We describe diverse Dutch INA partners’ experiences to provide integrated person- and population-centered support to community-dwelling older people using an adapted version of Valentijn and colleagues’ integrated care model. Our main objective was to explore the experiences with INA participation. We sought to increase our understanding of the challenges facing these partners and identify factors facilitating and inhibiting integration within and among multiple levels. Methods: Twenty-one interviews with INA partners (including local health and social care organizations, older people, municipal officers, and a health insurer) were conducted and subjected to latent content analysis. Results: This study showed that integrated care and support provision through an INA is a complex, dynamic process requiring multilevel alignment of activities. The INA achieved integration at the personal, service, and professional levels only occasionally. Micro-level bottom-up initiatives were not aligned with top-down incentives, forcing community workers to establish integration 'despite' rather than because of meso- and macro-level contexts. Conclusions: Top-down incentives should be better aligned with bottom-up initiatives. This study further demonstrated the importance of community-level engagement in integrated care and support provision.

Drawing on a small-scale qualitative study of the life experiences of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) in the UK, this paper explores the formal and informal supports used by the adults to achieve and maintain a lifestyle of their choice. Many adults with CF do not have visible impairments and are faced with deciding to disclose CF so they can claim the formal supports of independent living, or presenting as ‘normal’ and forfeiting the formal supports which may accompany disclosure. At an individual level, both strategies can offer a route to a ‘normal life’. However, wider analysis of independent living and formal and informal supports in the lives of adults with CF is overdue; this paper presents an initial such analysis in the context of the UK coalition government's vision for adult social care and the voluntarism of ‘Big Society’.