User:Iadmc/On care

The coverage of "carer"/"caregiver" is patchy on WP and confusing at times. I intend to figure out how the solve the major issues.

The following were intended as posts on talk:Caregiver but I decided to to more research before opening up the whole can of worms once again!

Time to split?
The page discusses both unpaid and paid carers/caregivers. (Is there a term for this latter that is common to all varieties of English?) As someone in the UK who has experienced both "sides of the coin", at it were, I feel that the present page is confusing because:
 * 1) it starts out by stating "Carer (UK, NZ, Australian usage) and caregiver (US, Canadian usage) are words normally used to refer to unpaid relatives or friends who support people with disabilities" and only in the second paragraph explains that the terms are often used loosely to refer to professional workers;
 * 2) each of the terms in the second paragraph only describe one aspect each of the multi-faceted work of the various types of professional worker;
 * 3) only one of these terms is linked to a specific article thus implying that all professional workers do that type of work and that that term is used globally (which does not appear to be the case);
 * 4) both unpaid and professional caregiving/caring are becoming more and more regulated—almost on a daily basis—but in quite distinct ways;
 * 5) the page was originally intended to describe unpaid carers/caregivers and still more or less does that while glossing over the roles and rights of professional carers/caregivers

Also Caregiver (disambiguation) is inaccurate in many of its specifics and seems to be incomplete. Elderly Persons Home, for one, does not appear to be accurately descrided by any of the articles.

On commonality
Despite having worked as both a paid care assistant and an unpaid carer in the UK, I too had never heard the term "caregiver" before joining WP. Is there an ENGVAR-neutral term? Also, I cannot find an article dedicated to the profession as a whole, i.e. taking in the work of professionals in nursing homes, assisted living residences and facilities (which I assume is intended to include Elderly Persons Homes), hospices and in the community as home carers. I would be reluctant to expand this article with details on these; I could be bold and create an article but would have no idea what to call it! Any advice?