Young informal carers’ information needs communicated online: Professional and personal growth, finance, health and relationships

Abstract

Young informal carers (YICs) are non-professional young individuals providing care and support in various forms, usually to immediate family members, afflicted from a diverse range of both long- and short-term health conditions. Although there is significant knowledge about the information needs of adult carers in general, information needs and information seeking characteristics of the YICs’ community are understudied and are different. This study aims to identify the information needs of YICs communicated over the Internet and understanding their information seeking characteristics through a three-stage qualitative content analysis of posts written by YICs on two notable Internet forums. The analysis of 323 posts dated between March 2010 and April 2019 finds YICs’ needs are categorised by two types of online expression of needs, situational and information. Situational needs are illustrations of current difficult conditions and information needs are direct requests for information. Under situational and information needs, we identify four types of needs expressed: personal and professional growth, health (self and caree), finance and relationships. In addition, the findings indicate 94.36% posts in the sample as situational needs, which depict the uncertainty experienced by YICs under caring circumstances. The findings can assist government organisations and charities by improving the indexing of advice pages of their websites appropriate to the YICs’ search words, better availability of information and advertising, in addition to building quality mobile applications or digital support tools.

Addressing the information needs of informal carers in Malawi: a healthcare intervention based on co-creation

“…We can therefore summarise that informal carers' information needs relate to information specific to the condition/disease of the cared-for person, whereby this needs to be accurate, credible and timely (Sbaffi and Hargreaves, 2021). These can be considered as formalised needs, as often the informal carer can define well the information they need (Koya et al, 2022). Yet, informal carers will also have less formalised information needs, on the one hand, due to incognizance and on the other hand because their circumstances and the condition of the cared-for person will change over time.…”

“…In terms of the information needs that relate to the informal carer themselves, these can be equally varied. For example, an informal carer will probably need to learn new skills that can help them in their caring role, they will need information in terms of managing their finances and their own health and wellbeing and, most crucially, they will require information in terms of support services, and who to contact when in need (Koya et al, 2022). What is important to note, however, is that becoming an informal carer might not be a straightforward process.…”

“…We can therefore summarise that informal carers' information needs relate to information specific to the condition/disease of the cared for person, whereby this needs to be accurate, credible and timely (Sbaffi & Hargreaves, 2021). These can be considered as formalised needs, as often the informal carer is able to define well the information they need (Koya et al, 2022).…”