Cathy Thomson is a Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She has a BA (Sydney University) and an MA (UNSW). She has been actively involved in research in the field of community services, social care and carer issues for a number of years. Her research interests include access to health and community care services; the impact of informal care on employment, health and financial security; informal care and time use; aged care issues; and children’s services. Her expertise in the field of informal care has been recognised through the award of Australian Research Council grants where she is a co-Chief Investigator including:Time for Care, 2000, Identifying Isolated Carers, 2002, Negotiating Caring and Employment, 2004 and Young Carers, 2006. Her current research focuses carers and social inclusion and young carers. Cathy is a co-editor of the SPRC newsletter and a member of the UNSW Human Ethics Research Advisory Panel. She is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate supported by a research scholarship from the Australian Institute for Population Ageing at UNSW. Her research field is ‘Carers and the costs of care in an ageing society’.