Continuing carers: Developing a conceptual framework to explore their status & identity

Continuing carers are carers whose relative has been admitted to long term care. How they view their changed identity and status is unexplored; some psycho-sociological frameworks may be helpful. A growing sub group of the UK's two million older carers are those who support a relative in long term care - so called 'continuing carers'. Of the 450,000 care home residents at least two thirds received care from a relative prior to admission and many continue to receive care post admission. This is particularly the case for spouse carers of partners with dementia. To date research on this invisible group has primarily focused on the instrumental roles they perform and what, if any, support they receive from carers agencies or care homes. Far less attention has been paid to the lived experience of continuing carers and the conceptual status such carers occupy. Indeed the limited nature of current analysis of the transition from full time carer to continuing carer draws neither on psychological theory of role transformation nor on relevant sociological concepts. Exploring the process of continuing to care through the intersecting lenses of role identity, social liminality and biographical disruption has the potential to illuminate our understanding of the carers' changed status and psychological vulnerability as well as extend knowledge about, and understanding of, this group of carers.