ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by offering an overview of informal caregiving in current times, including statistics on the prevalence of caregiving and coverage of various issues that caregivers face. We then discuss various challenges and health issues faced by informal caregivers, coupled with the positive outcomes they can experience. Despite a strong presence of stress and emotional turmoil in this context, caregivers can undergo a range of personal, physiological, and prosocial benefits. These benefits can also be enhanced via home- and community-based research interventions. We include a description of three types of caregiver-focused interventions designed to improve caregiver and care-recipient well-being and their corresponding relational health. Throughout the chapter, we also outline various opportunities for communication researchers to expand their presence in this area of study, given the unique interaction-based perspective that the communication discipline offers.
