[Alternative civilian service as a "helping hand" in private households - potentials for reconciling work and informal care].

Alternative civilian service as a "helping hand" in private households - potentials for reconciling work and informal care Informal caregivers (or family caregivers) are considered as the backbone of unpaid care in private households. As they are increasingly often employed, new sources of aid in domestic long-term care settings are needed. The Swiss Federal Council therefore mandated the Swiss Federal Office of Civilian Service to commission a study of how civil servants would be accepted as aids by informal caregivers and which services the latter would use. The results contribute to the development of alternative civilian services in Switzerland based on empirical evidence from informal caregivers who are employed at the same time. 158 informal caregivers from three language regions of Switzerland who were employed at the time answered a standardized quantitative survey. Their data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods (hypothesis testing, regression). Situations in which the cared-for person had cognitive limitations (29 %) constituted for the majority of the working time of civil servants as desired by informal caregivers (56 %) and were associated with increased willingness to pay. Support with caregiving tasks of personal hygiene and transport services were frequently desired, and the underlying settings required above-average intensity of support. There is a need for aid along the entire span of informal caregivers' working life. Reconcilability of employment and informal long-term care is dependent on a well-functioning, flexible network, which cannot be ensured by the labor market alone.