ABSTRACT
Jane Taylor (1979) has referred to the unpaid carers as the ‘hidden labour of the NHS’. Unpaid carers are involved in health promotion, health maintenance, health restoration and caring for the disabled. Most of them are women. We have already seen (Chapter 7) the way in which the state recruited the mothers of the nation as unpaid helpers in the bid to improve the quality of the nation’s health. The process of teaching and encouraging mothers continues through the work of health visitors. It was also backed by government resources in the form of grants to the Health Education Council (now succeeded by the Health Education Authority). There is no doubt that many mothers are appreciative of the help and advice that they are given, but some still find the entry of health visitors into the home an affront to their privacy. Others are frankly ambiguous (Buswell, 1980a and 1981).
