Carers are the bedrock of community care, and yet our understanding of how they do and do not fit into the care system is limited. Concern is often expressed about the need to support carers, but the best way to do this is not always clear.

This book breaks new ground in exploring the reality of how service providers the doctors, social workers, and community nurses respond to carers. It looks at which carers get help and why, analyzing how age, relationship, class and gender structure the responses of service providers and carers. It examines the moral and policy issues posed by trying to incorporate carers' interests into service provision. What would services look like if they took the needs of carers seriously? How far can they afford to do so? Is this only achieved at the expense of disabled people? What is the proper relationship between carers and services?

Carers pose in acute form many of the central dilemmas of social welfare, and the account presented here has the widest significance for the analysis of community care. Focusing on the views of carers as well as service providers, the book looks at caring across a variety of relationships and conditions, including people with mental health problems and learning disabilities.