ABSTRACT
Although not all older people are frail or disabled it remains the case that older people present significant needs for health and social care. For the gerontologist there is a delicate balance to be struck between combating the myth that `all old people are ill' and understating the very real needs for care and services presented by physically and mentally frail older people. For those older people who need care in later life, there are two major resource domains available, in theory at least, to meet these needs: the formal services provided by statutory or voluntary agencies and informal networks. In this chapter we are concerned with the `informal' network. We consider how this presents a framework within which care for older people is organised and describe the wider historical context, although the detailed social policy dimensions of this issue are considered in Chapter 10, which deals with formal care services and the relationship between `formal' and `informal' services. Although the two resource domains are presented as separate and distinct, this rigid division is somewhat artificial. We need to remember that `caring work' takes place in both public and private spheres and that to draw too rigid a distinction between them is somewhat artificial.
