After all the ink that's been spilled on the subject of family caregiving, what have we learned that's worth knowing? This issue provides a look at lessons of the past, the state of the art for current research and practice, and new directions as the needs of older people for long-term care--and of the families who provide most of it--intersect with a changing healthcare system. The guest editor is Carol Levine, director of the Families and Health Care Project for the United Hospital Fund in New York. She has brought to the issue rare insight based on a distinguished background of research and policy analysis and her own experience over the past fourteen years struggling to care for her brain-damaged husband.