§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department(a) has commissioned and (b) plans to commission on the health problems facing carers. [2963]
§ Mr. BoatengIn recent years the Department of Health has funded a substantial body of research on carers and caring which has looked, inter alia, at the health of carers. The completed research has been published and widely disseminated.
Research currently in progress includes a major evaluative research study on community care for very dependent older people, which will investigate outcomes for both users and carers. A developmentally focused programme of research to develop and test new approaches to assessing community care outcomes for users and carers is currently being taken forward in collaboration with two local authorities.
530WPlans are well in hand to commission a major new research initiative on outcomes of social care for adults, to include outcomes for carers. It is expected that the research will include a study of outcomes of assessments of carers' needs, a study of carer outcomes over time, and a study to evaluate the impact on older people with dementia and their carers of early primary care intervention. A study of carer burdens and associated costs in dementia care over time is also planned.