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The Importance of Relationship: Elders and Their Paid Family Caregivers in the Arkansas Cash and Counseling Qualitative Study

J. Kevin Eckert

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Lori Simon-Rusinowitz

University of Maryland Center on Aging

This article examines the preference of elder consumers for family caregiving, family caregivers' willingness to work for them, and what quality of care means to these elders and their families. It draws on 26 interviews with elders and their family caregivers who participated in Arkansas's Cash and Counseling Program, as part of a consumer-directed national research project. Elders chose family members as caregivers to control the type and scheduling of the care they received. Both elders and family caregivers valued care that took place in the context of a reciprocal relationship. Policy implications include the suitability of consumer direction for elder consumers, an understanding of the way elders define quality of care, and the experience of family caregivers in a consumer-directed program.

Key Words: elders with disabilities • family caregivers • paid family care • consumer direction • Cash and Counseling

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