Caregivers of people with dementia incur significant strain and have substantial need for a variety of services. Nevertheless many caregivers were not using support services, mainly because of perceived lack of need or lack of awareness. Better public promotion of services, destigmatising dementia and encouraging referrals from health professionals could help overcome the barriers to service use.

Research and theory on ' dependency ' and ' care-giving ' have to date proceeded along largely separate lines, with little sense that they are exploring and explaining different aspects of the same phenomenon. Research on 'care ', initially linked to feminism during the early 1980s, has revealed and exposed to public gaze what was hitherto assumed to be a ' natural ' female activity. Conversely, disability activists and writers who have promoted a social model of disability have seen the language of and the policy focus upon 'care ' as oppressive and objectifying. ' Dependency ' is an equally contested concept: sociologists have scrutinised the social construction of dependency; politicians have ascribed negative connotations of passivity ; while medical and social policy discourse employs the term in a positivist sense as a measure of physical need for professional intervention. Autonomy and independence, in contrast, are promoted as universal and largely unproblematic goals. These contrasting perspectives have led social theory, research and policies to separate and segregate the worlds of ' carers ' from those for whom they 'care '. Drawing on the work of Kittay and others, this paper explores the ways in which sociological perspectives can develop new understanding of the social contexts of ' care ' and ' dependence '.

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No longer hidden in the home as a private problem, care and the human services are increasingly important public concerns in advanced societies. Care is also emerging as a significant field of social theory and enquiry with considerable importance for the field of sociology. However, it remains a specialist topic rather than a central concern of the discipline. This article considers these developments and discusses the significance that recognizing the central place of care in social life might have for sociology. To understand what contemporary sociology might offer the study of care, in turn, I draw on the work of a number of leading contemporary theorists to identify four themes that have particular significance for the study of care: the body; individualization; risk; and the new organizational logics. The potential application of these four themes to the study of care is identified and a number of contemporary developments and future options considered.

‘Care' is a source of critical tension in current social theory, and the policy and practice implications of that tension are evidenced in its current prominence on the political agenda of developed welfare states. This article critically appraises current developments in the theory, policy and practice of care, drawing on interdisciplinary developments in political theory, sociology and social policy. Developing feminist and disability-rights theories, it explores a critical synthesis of conflicting normative and theoretical positions regarding the giving and receiving of care, and of the ethics and justice of care. It examines case studies of current comparative policy developments across a range of different welfare regimes, including the marketization/commodification and de/re-familiaization of care, exploring ideological and normative trends in the design of contemporary policies. It discusses the impact of theory and policy on the practice of care, looking particularly at the issue of long-term care for disabled and older adults. Finally, the authors argue for the development of a citizenship-based approach to care that decouples it from individualistic and paternalistic paradigms that disempower those who give and receive care