[The legal limits and ambiguities of the role of the family caregivers].
BACKGROUND
While living in a period easily characterized by the self-actualization of the patient as the support of a non-professional valuation, it seems useful to evaluate the situation concerning the limits of the involvement of the non-professional caregivers who take care of dependent or disabled persons. They become involved in the course of care in order to protect their relative the best way they can. This involvement has an influence on the evolution of the care, particularly from a psychic point of view, as well as in the way any medical act will be conducted.


OBJECTIVE
This work analyses the French legal context, reflecting the practical experience of the gerontopsychiatric teams. A legal point is established on the outlines of the voluntary help provided by the relatives and/or close friends. The approach, aiming at recognizing the family caregivers as such and bearing in mind that they can almost become the persons' guardians if need be, cannot but provoke several ethical issues as well as difficulties concerning the way of taking care of the patient. The difficulties the caregivers may have are in a way related to the lack of clear legal definitions of the medical act, as well as to the lack of definitions of the tasks one may expect from the family caregiver.


CONCLUSIONS
This lack also shows the difficulties the law-maker is confronted with when defining what concerns the natural family care and what concerns the collective solidarity. The evolution of the role of caregivers in our society, which must face the pandemic of chronic diseases, thus means an evolution in the substantive law in the field of family care.
JE 2535, UBO Brest, intersecteur de psychiatrie du sujet âgé, centre hospitalier de Bohars, CHU de Brest, 29200 Brest, France. c.hazif-thomas@ch.quimperle.fr
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D003142:Communication; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D017281:Cost of Illness; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D005852:Geriatric Psychiatry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007872:Legal Guardians / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology