The shift to caring for older people and people with disability in the community depends on the availability of informal carers to take on a caring role. These are unpaid carers (family, friends or neighbours) who have assumed responsibility for another's physical, emotional or developmental wellbeing. The care provided is an expression of their relationship in a time of need, even though this may not always be the carer's first choice. While caring may be rewarding, carers may also experience the stress of social isolation, physical and emotional strain, and reduced education and employment potential. Use of the adjective 'informal' does not imply that the care provided is thought to be casual or lacking in structure and process. Rather, it is a means of distinguishing the care of a person by family, friends and neighbours from care that is provided by formal agencies or institutions, paid for by the receiver or provided by (necessarily) trained professionals.
Information about the availability of carers to recipients of government services is found in administrative data collections such as the HACC (Home and Community Care) and ACAP (Aged Care Assessment Program)minimum data sets, and through census collections of programs such as CACPs (Community Aged Care Packages) , EACH (Extended Aged Care at Home) packages and DTCs (Day Therapy Centres) . The ABS's 5 yearly Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (most recently conducted in 2009)is another important source of information on carers. These surveys show that many people receive help solely from their carers and do not receive assistance from formal service providers (Australia's welfare 2003 p294-5).
Carers and informal care are topics covered in each issue of Australia's welfare, and are highlighted in special chapters in Australia’s welfare 2009 and Australia's welfare 2003. These chapters cover a range of care issues for older people, people with disability and informal non-parental care for children.
More details on these topics are found in the AIHW report, The future supply of informal care 2003-2013: alternative scenarios. The report looks at three alternative scenarios for the future supply of informal carers, compared with the result if the carer rates observed in the 1998 ABS Disability, Ageing and Carers Survey remained constant within each age, sex, labour force participation and living arrangement category over the projection period. The three scenarios are:
- An overall decline in the willingness of people to care;
- A decrease in the number of carers that could result from reduced willingness on the part of employed women to leave the paid workforce to care; and
- An increase in the number of carers that could result from higher numbers of co-resident spouses and partners in the older population.
Another AIHW report, Carers in Australia: assisting frail older people and people with a disability, is concerned with the work of those who provide care to adults and children who require the assistance of others because of disability, including age-related frailty. Over 490,000 people in Australia class themselves as 'primary carers', providing unpaid assistance to others with a severe or profound level of disability. One in two primary carers are spending 20 hours per week or more providing care, with 1 in 3 providing over 40 hours of care per week. Only 22% were in full-time paid work in 1998. The report also looks at possible scenarios relating to the potential number of primary carers available up to 2013.
While informal care can be broadly defined to include non-parental care of children, this report focuses exclusively on the unpaid care provided by family and friends to people of all ages who are restricted in the activities of daily living through disability or age-related frailty.