The Massachusetts State Legislature made funding available for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) to support research activities to determine the need for home and community based services and an economic profile of individuals and families with neurologically and physically disabled adults.

MDPH contracted with the Center for Survey Research, University of Massachusetts, Boston, (CSR) to conduct the study. The objective of the caregiver study was to hear the perspective of informal caregivers on their unmet needs and the unmet needs of the people for whom they provide care.

This report is based on 58 interviews with informal caregivers of adults with disabilities who participated in the main interview. The exact criteria for selection into the caregiver study are described in Appendix A. The first part of this report describes the important characteristics of informal caregivers, particularly as they relate to the care recipient, and the second part of the Findings section is more specific to the questions this survey was designed to address: the unmet needs of adults with disabilities and their informal caregivers. All of the data reported here are based on unweighted data and should be considered exploratory in nature (abstract from p. 1-2 of report).