New challenges for social services: cooperation with the community help systems and special attention to family caregivers

Abstract

The article presents a literature review of community help systems and non professional caregivers. It is aimed at different kinds of personnel working in both the community and specialized social services. Its purpose is to encourage a debate concerning new positions in relation to the users of the social services. Itincludes three parts. The first explains the antecedents of the present interest in community help systems. It also presents the theoretical foundations that justify the need for cooperation between the personnel in social services and the members of the community help systems. The second part pays special atten- tion to one of the key elements of the community help systems, the caregivers. The third offers information about the British non professional caregiver support model, and some conclusions and suggestions for the debate among psychologists and other members ofthe social services about new roles, based upon an ecological and systemic model of cooperation among different help systems.