Invisible cornerstones. A hermeneutic study of the experience of care partners of older people with mental health problems in home care services.

Few or no routines for collaboration exist between care partners and home care, and the care partners seem to have little knowledge of legal rights. They request more information, spare time and the opportunity to remain in their original family role. However, their main focus is for the patient to receive the necessary help from home care. Home care have restricted resources for meeting these needs and share a sense of powerlessness and lack of influence over their own everyday life with the care partners. There is a need for a systematic, person-centred approach to collaboration. A correlation is necessary between what is communicated at the system level and the means of realising this in practice for home care to meet care partners' needs.