The New Zealand Carers’ Strategy was launched in 2008 by then Minister for Senior Citizens, the Hon Ruth Dyson and can be found at the back of the latest Carers' Strategy Action Plan. The Strategy was developed in partnership by government agencies and the New Zealand Carers Alliance (which represents a network of over 45 not-for-profit organisations). It is supported by five-year action plans that address key priorities identified by carers and the Government.
The latest Carers’ Strategy Action Plan is focused on improving the wellbeing of the one in 10 New Zealanders who care for a loved one with a disability, health condition, illness or injury. Mahi Aroha includes a range of actions that we will help carry out with other government agencies and sector organisations over the next five years. Mahi Aroha was developed in partnership with the New Zealand Carers’ Alliance and a cross-government agency working group.
The Ministry of Health’s disability respite strategy, Transforming Respite: Disability Support Services Respite Strategy 2017-2022, will make it easier for carers of disabled people to have a break from their caring responsibilities. Transforming respite sets the future direction for improving disability respite support. The strategy responds directly to what disabled people and their families/whānau told us about their aspirations for the future.
The page, Carers in New Zealand, contains information about carers and their role, the Carers’ Strategy partnership between the government and Carers Alliance, and the care-related interest and responsibilities of the Ministry of Health.
A Guide for Carers is practical help for whānau, aiga and carers who assist family members and friends who need help with everyday living because of a health condition, disability or injury. It includes information on services and supports available for carers.
This page, COVID-19: Information for family, whānau, and āiga carers, contains information on the role of a carer during New Zealand’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This page makes it easy to find the support and advice for carers.
The purpose of this paper, Current state: Carers of people with health conditions or disabilities, is to provide information on New Zealand’s working-age carers, including how their caregiving roles affect them, and to describe the supports currently provided as well as the challenges with the current carer support system.
This book, Multiple Dimension of Caregiving and Disability, explore how caring for people with disabilities often becomes an all-encompassing responsibility for one or more family members. To manage the multifaceted demands, caregivers must possess strong multitasking skills, including the ability to assist with daily life tasks; provide emotional support; help with financial affairs; mediate and advocate with health care providers.
The goal of this edited volume, The Spectrum of Family Caregiving for Adults and Elders with a Chronic Illness, is to review the research on the caregiving role and the interventions developed to assist family caregivers of older adults and elders with different chronic conditions. An evidence table is included in each of these chapters so readers can judge more easily the quality of evidence supporting the intervention studies.
This book, Service User and Carer Involvement in Health and Social Care, was written by a collection of experts in the field, this text provides a critical and constructive analysis of the ways in which service users and carers engage with health and social care services. Covering topics such as the importance of terminology, wellbeing and resilience and the notion of tokenism, and enhanced by a wealth of first-hand experiences.
In this book, An extra pair of hands, Kate Mosse tells her personal story of finding herself as a carer in middle age: first, helping her mother look after her beloved father through Parkinson's, then supporting her mother in widowhood, and finally as 'an extra pair of hands' for her 90-year-old mother-in-law. This is a story about the gentle heroism of our carers, about small everyday acts of tenderness, and finding joy in times of crisis.
In The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor, Arthur Kleinman delivers a deeply humane and inspiring story of his life in medicine and his marriage to Joan, and he describes the practical, emotional and moral aspects of caretaking. He also writes about the problems our society faces as medical technology advances and the cost of health care soars but caring for patients no longer seems important.
Despite advances in detection and treatment, cancer remains a source of pain and distress to patients and of complex challenges to the loved ones caring for them. The trend toward shorter hospital stays in particular has increased the physical, psychological, and financial burden on caregivers, often leading to adverse effects on patients. Cancer Caregiving in the United States illuminates these complex concerns with authoritative detail.
Informal Caregivers Literature Review (2007)
This literature review was undertaken at the request of the National Health Committee as part of a project investigating the significance and impacts of informal caregiving on the lives of caregivers.
How Should we Care for the Carers, Now and into the Future? Manaaki tangata (2009)
This report makes recommendations for how to better support and provide services for informal carers. The NHC believes that the health and wellbeing of informal carers should be protected. Informal carers need to be well supported in their role so that they can provide care in a sustainable and positive way.
Maori and informal caregiving (2008)
This paper seeks to provide insight into Māori informal caregiving by drawing upon relevant literature. Where available, comparisons have been made between Māori and non-Māori in order to explore any existing similarities or differences.
This landmark study highlights the unique challenges facing elderly Pacific caregivers in New Zealand, especially where an older person is caring for a young person with a disability or illness.
Targeted Engagement on Funded Family Care and Paid Family Care (2018)
This report summarises the views from families and care organisations on options to improve Funded Family Care. The report includes themes emerging as priorities from targeted stakeholder engagement (meetings and an e-survey) on the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care (FFC) policy and District Health Boards paid family care policies.
Check out some of the latest research around carers here or New Zealand specific research here. If you would like to get a more tailored alert set-up, please get in touch with our library team.
Family carer needs in advanced disease: systematic review of reviews (2022)
The aim of this systematic review was to identify the most commonly expressed needs of family carers of people with an advanced disease, assess the quality of current evidence, and set an agenda for future research and clinical practice.
The study explored the views of New Zealand home carers providing home-based palliative care, as little is known about this in the New Zealand context.
This study investigates sex and ethnicity in relationships of care using data from Wave 4 of LiLACS NZ, a longitudinal study of Māori and non‐Māori New Zealanders of advanced age.
Distress in informal carers of the elderly in New Zealand (2018)
Informal care, which is unpaid and often provided by family and friends, is the primary source of aged care in New Zealand. In addition to financial costs there are known psychological costs of being a carer, including poor mental health. This research aimed to interview a group of New Zealand carers and describe their rates of depression and anxiety, their motivations for providing care, costs of care and their experience of aggression.
Caregivers for people at end of life in advanced age: knowing, doing and negotiating care (2018)
The need for palliative and end of life care for the oldest old is growing rapidly. Family carers often report they do not feel well supported; for better practice and policy, we need better understanding of their experiences and how to support them.
Extending “Continuity of Care” to include the Contribution of Family Carers (2017)
Family carers, as a “shadow workforce”, are foundational to the day-to-day integration of health service delivery for older family members living with complex health needs. This paper utilises Haggerty’s model of continuity of care to explore the contribution of family carers’ to the provision of care and support for an older family member’s chronic condition within the context of health service delivery.
Page last updated 2022-01-14