ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a critique of literature on later-life caregiving and service utilization in order to highlight some of the methodological challenges and dilemmas confronting research on longitudinal patterns of service use among caregiving families. Formal services vary widely in their availability and accessibility. Availability and accessibility ought to be broadly defined, including physical, political, economic, organizational, psychological, social, and geographic dimensions. The organization of service delivery systems and of funding mechanisms constrain the options and shape all of these patterns, both within and across services. Caregiving is often operationalized as the total number of activities of daily living tasks with which help is provided, rather than in terms of the intensity and frequency of help required or the duration of care provided. Individual characteristics of care recipients and caregivers are far more likely to be used as predictors of service use than interpersonal or systemic variables are.
