A new paradigm for continuing care policy has emerged that is based on assumptions about the benefits of caring partnerships and client-centred care delivery. Such assumptions place the interface between formal and informal care squarely on the policy agenda. The authors describe how existing research can contribute to the debate stimulated by the new policy paradigm and suggest future research that is informed by the paradigm. They argue that theory is an important tool to make policy agendas more explicit and they use human ecology theory to illustrate how theory can frame the development of research to address policy. Finally, they describe barriers to be overcome in order for policy and research to inform one another.

In this paper we investigate the geographical context in which employed caregivers provide assistance to their elderly relatives. Specifically, we examine the impact of the spatial arrangement of the employed caregiver's home, their workplace and the care recipient's home (the “locational triangle” alluded to in our title) on work-family balance. Analysis of data drawn from a national study of Work and Family conducted by the Canadian Aging Research Network (CARNET) indicates that the parameters of the locational triangle have discernable impacts on levels of perceived stress and interference and on the incidence of certain job effects and coping behaviours. The impacts of longer journey to work and increased distance from elderly relative(s) on stress and interference levels are seen to be bound up with the nature of family responsibilities. Location-based coping behaviours (considered or implemented in the six months leading up to the survey) are reported by 18 per cent of our sample of 595 employed caregivers, but are virtually confined to the home-elder axis of the location triangle. On the basis of our results, we advocate greater attention to the spatial context of work-family balance.