ABSTRACT
Carers may receive help from kin, friends and neighbours, from voluntary bodies, or from social and health services. In keeping with the new emphasis on supporting the supporters, the sources of help available, particularly in the form of statutory provision, are some of the better researched areas (e.g. Levin, Sinclair, and Gorbach 1983). We focus on the carer’s attitude towards and experience of formal and informal help. Just as our view of the nature of the central caring relationship was necessarily refracted through the daughter’s gaze, so also is our account of external helping relationships, and without the helper’s side of things we cannot verify these accounts. However, potential helpers may find it valuable to see how carers’ perceptions of their efforts are linked to other elements that, taken together, comprise the caring experience.
