The impact of social care on quality of life of older carers and the people they care for: a scoping review

Especially since the Care Act (2014) placed a duty on local authorities to assess and meet the eligible needs of carers, care practice in England has tended to identify, assess and address carers’ needs separately to those of the care-recipients. However, this approach may not fully consider the complexity of caregiving relationships or the overlaps in the impact of support on well-being and quality of life (QoL). In particular, older carers, who support a family member or friend, typically in close spousal/partner or adult child/parent relationships, are often overlooked in policy and practice. A scoping review was undertaken to identify and synthesise what is already known about the QoL of older carers and care-recipients – both, in general, and with regard to the impact of community-based social care. We searched on 16 electronic databases and grey literature. Inclusion criteria were: published in English, 2000 and onwards, focusing on older co-resident carers and care-recipients from a dyadic perspective and their QoL or well-being. Two researchers screened studies by title and abstract before review of the full-text. Included papers will be thematically analysed and the findings presented with regard to how older carers and care-recipients experience QoL from a dyadic perspective and how community-based social care supports QoL. The findings will inform qualitative interviews with older carers/care-recipients and social care professionals in the later stages of the wider DYAD project, which seeks to identify the potential benefits and challenges of adopting a combined dyadic and QoL outcomes-based approach.