Informal Care in Asian and Afro/Caribbean Communities: A Literature Review

The multi-racial nature of British society can no longer be ignored by those responsible for planning and implementing social care policy, particularly since community care is presently at a crossroads. Informal care provides a useful starting point from which to introduce the notion of race into social care debates. The paper, by reviewing a mix of empirical studies and policy debates emerging from the literature on informal care and black communities, examines the experience of informal care within black communities. By discussing topics such as the demography of care, the nature of informal care, and service provision to black carers, it gives coherence to a fragmented literature and illustrates gaps in present understanding.