On Friday 7 June, at the premises of the Red Cross of Savski Venac, branch of the Red Cross of Serbia a focus group interview took place with participation of a group of informal carers. These were mostly family members who provide care to an older member of the family who is functionally dependent, or a younger family member with disability.

The objective of the focus group interview was to identify needs and challenges that informal carers face during the everyday care provision activities, as well as to collect data that will be used to develop a questionnaire used in a future, comprehensive research study.

During the interview and conversation an important observation was made apparent – informal carers receive very little support from the society and what support is there is either insufficiently accessible or insufficiently visible. It is necessary to design programmes of support, education and services for this group in the society.

This focus group interview is a part of the project supported by the Office of the Minister without portfolio responsible for demographics and population policy and is implemented by HelpNet NGO in partnership with the Red Cross of Serbia.