title: Community care for people with disability: blurring boundaries between formal and informal caregivers.
abstract: Health care for individuals with disability is increasingly shifting from institutional settings to the "community," with assistance by those in the formal sector. In this article, the authors examine 5 case studies illustrating interactions and relationships between people with disability and their caregivers, using qualitative data collected as part of a community study of disability conducted in a medium-sized city in the northeastern United States. Employing the task specificity framework, they explore the implications of using either formal care providers to fill needs that are more typically met by family and friends or family caregivers to provide care that is best provided by the formal sector. Although our narratives illustrate the negative implications of mismatched care substitution, we conclude that the framework is less applicable to emerging systems of community care.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Division of Health Care Policy and Research, USA.
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Desirée
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ciambrone
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000739:Anecdotes as Topic; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006701:Home Nursing; D006704:Homemaker Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009511:New England