We have information on informal care used by the general population, not specifically for people living with dementia. According to the first nationally representative study of older people published in 2018 (ELSI-Brazil), 94.1% of the care is provided by family members at home, of which 72.1% are provided by women (Giacomin et al., 2018). An integrative review conducted among Brazilian studies between 2011 and 2016 also revealed that the majority of informal carers of older people (not specifically carers of people living with dementia) are women (usually daughters), aged 56.3 years (on average), married, and who dedicated themselves exclusively to caring (Santos et al., 2017).

In Brazil, there is a social expectation that women (the first choice would be the spouse; and the second, a daughter or daughter-in-law) would be the primary caregiver. Care homes are not accepted by the general population due to stigma and poor regulatory systems of the quality of such care services (Camarano & Barbosa, n.d.). In addition, there is a very limited number of care homes which are public; the majority of them are private services which need to be paid for by the families. This contributes to the maintenance of unpaid care as the main source of care for older people nationally.

References:

Camarano, A. A. & Barbosa, P. (n.d.). Instituições de Longa Permanência para Idosos no Brasil: Do que se está falando? (pp. 479–514). Retrieved July 17, 2019, from http://repositorio.ipea.gov.br/bitstream/11058/9146/1/Institui%C3%A7%C3%B5es%20de%20longa%20perman%C3%AAncia.pdf

Giacomin, K. C., Duarte, Y. A. O., Camarano, A. A., Nunes, D. P., & Fernandes, D. (2018). Care and functional disabilities in daily activities – ELSI-Brazil. Rev. Saúde Pública, 52(Suppl 2). https://doi.org/10.11606/S1518-8787.2018052000650

Santos, D. F. B. dos, Carvalho, E. B. de, Nascimento, M. do P. S. S. do, Sousa, D. M. de, & Carvalho, H. E. F. de. (2017). ATENÇÃO À SAÚDE DO IDOSO POR CUIDADORES INFORMAIS NO CONTEXTO DOMICILIAR: REVISÃO INTEGRATIVA. SANARE – Revista de Políticas Públicas, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.36925/sanare.v16i2.1181