Comparison of the Role of Informal Caregivers in the System of Long-term Care in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

This bachelor thesis looks into informal long-term care in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Providing informal care can be hard and often has negative impacts on informal caregivers, which can even lead to burnout syndrome. But usually informal caregivers do not have a different choice because of unavailable formal care or the pressure of generation solidarity. The author describes long-term care in Czechoslovakia before 1989 in order to confirm or refute the validity of path dependence theory; she uses Sigrid Leitner's typology. Then she pinpoints the role of informal caregivers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and afterwards she draws a comparison between them. The comparative analysis is based on given criteria, it especially focuses on informal caregivers' rights and obligations. Lastly, the author tries to apply discovered similarities and differences between the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the path dependence theory and verify its validity