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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on July 25, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2005 35(7):1175-1192; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch244
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Carers’ Perspectives on the Internet: Implications for Social and Health Care Service Provision

Janet Read and Clare Blackburn

Janet Read is a Reader in the School of Health and Social Studies at the University of Warwick. She is a social worker and her research and teaching focuses on the development of responsive services for disabled children and adults and those close to them.

Clare Blackburn is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Studies at the University of Warwick. She researches and teaches on poverty and health in households with children and implications for policy and practice.

Correspondence to Janet Read, School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. Email: J.M.Read{at}Warwick.ac.uk

To date, little is known about carers’ experience of using online services and informa­tion. Data are reported from the Carers Online national postal survey of 3,014 adult carers and from an assisted access study involving 60 other adults who had been given training and cost-free Internet access at home. Half of the survey respondents reported having used the Internet on at least one occasion for a range of purposes related to both caring and other aspects of their lives. Major barriers to use identified by both users and non-users included lack of access to equipment and the Internet, difficulties with equipment and systems, cost, limitations on time, and lack of interest and skill. Fourteen per cent of the whole sample said that nothing would encourage them to use the Internet. All of the assisted access group used the Internet for a similarly wide range of purposes. Key benefits identified included convenience, flexibility, speed and range of information available, while problems with equipment and systems and time constraints were major barriers to effective Internet use. Findings suggest that while direct Internet access has some benefits for some carers, it should currently be only one of a range of ways of meeting their information needs.

Keywords: Carers, information, Internet, digital divide


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