Towards a psychology of service use in informal care: Social and psychological variables associated with service need and uptake amongst carers of learning disabled adults

A review and an empirical study were conducted to investigate social and psychological factors associated with reported service need and service uptake amongst carers of adults with a learning disability. Literature searches resulted in the identification of 150 hypothesis tests, distributed across 9 independent variables and 2 dependent measures of service use. Only three of the nine independent variables were consistently associated with use of services across the studies. Service use was higher amongst older carers, those caring for a younger client and amongst carers reporting more distress. Additionally, evidence was obtained to suggest a degree of unmet need. Whilst carers of lower socioeconomic status expressed a greater need for services, there was no evidence that this need was translated into actual service receipt. An empirical study investigated Community Learning Disability Team members' views of carers' reasons for service use and non-use. Evidence was obtained to suggest that professionals perceived that service use by informal carers may be guided by both structural aspects of provision and a range of social psychological variables which influence carer motivations to use respite. The findings suggest that an understanding of service use amongst informal carers of the chronically disabled might be promoted by attention to carers' beliefs about respite.