TOWARD A STRONG EVIDENCE BASE FOR CARER-FRIENDLY SYSTEMS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

80% of care across Europe is provided by the spouses, relatives and friends of older, sick or disabled people. There are over 100 million carers in Europe, probably an underestimate given the difficulty of (self-) recognition among carers. As population ageing generates growing demand for care, the intensity of caring roles is increasing. This symposium presents current policy and examples of research, highlighting gaps in knowledge. It is based on research priorities agreed by the Eurocarers Research Working Group to strengthen the evidence base for carer-friendly systems in Europe. An EU-wide NGO working for carers, Eurocarers has exceptional breadth of knowledge and comparative capacity. The Symposium will start with an overview of the EU policy context concerning carers, care and caring and present Eurocarers’ research priorities. Our second presentation will assess the impact and effectiveness of support for carers provided through public funding and NGOs, exploring which carers benefit from these approaches. The third presentation will focus on how new technologies support carers of older people, discussing the Eurocarers’ hub ‘InformCare’, an outcome of the EU ‘Innovage’ project. Our fourth speaker will focus on carer health and well-being, presenting conceptual findings derived from analysis of learning networks. The final presentation will debate methodological issues in conducting comparative research on informal care, inviting discussion of opportunities for wider, inter-continental, collaborative analysis. The discussant will distil key themes from the presentations and reflect on future scope to recognise the roles/rights of carers and support their claims for quality of life.