(How) Will it end? A qualitative analysis of free-text survey data on informal care endings

The health and social ‘after-effects’ of caring are well established, yet the way carers experience pathways out of caring remains under-researched. In this article, we analyse qualitative free-text responses (n = 1,746) from a national survey of Australian carers to explore current and former carers’ concerns, opportunities and preferences around care endings. Our thematic analysis derived three key findings: (1) anticipation and fears for the care recipient; (2) prospects for life after caring; and (3) responsibility, recognition and loss. We engage with scholarship on the moralities of caring to discuss carers’ precarious relational and social positions, and their uncertainties around how caring ends.

Key messages

• Carers worry about how care recipients will be looked after in the future in the carer’s absence, especially in situations where the carer is frail or ageing.


• Carers also worry about their own futures and life after caring, including fears about re-entering the workforce, housing and superannuation, as well as issues of loss and loneliness.


• For some carers, the imagined care ending does not ultimately constitute the end of their caring responsibility in practice; for example, many carers continue to provide considerable care for those in supported accommodation.


• Understanding how carers experience and make sense of care endings is important for improving support for current and former carers.