Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
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Family caregivers on the job: moving beyond ADLs and IADLs
- Authors:
- LEVINE Carol, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Generations, 27(4), Winter 2003, pp.17-23.
- Publisher:
- American Society on Aging
Discusses 'activities of daily living' and 'instruments for activities of daily living' which were designed to describe the functioning - and functional limitations - of care recipients. Looks at how they fail to convey the full complexity of the family caregivers responsibilities.
The family accompaniment of persons with dementia seen through the lens of the capability approach
- Authors:
- LE GALES Catherine, BUNGENER Martine
- Journal article citation:
- Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 18(1), 2019, pp.55-79.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Using the capability approach initially developed by A Sen as a theoretical framework, this paper analyses both what people with dementia and their families do in response to difficulties in their daily life brought about by the disease, and the reasons they give for acting as they do. Individual and collective interviews and ethnographic observations with 15 persons with dementia and one or more of their family members were conducted. Follow-up interviews were possible for nine families. Results highlight a great diversity in ways of doing things and in accompaniment by family members. Daily adjustments are often hidden or minimized, at least at the onset of the dementia. Later, they become more frequent, repetitive and indispensable but remain influenced by the social and gender roles that existed prior to the illness. The inventiveness of families, in a context marked by various kinds of constraints, is primarily motivated by their desire to maintain the apparently intact abilities of the person with dementia but especially to preserve forms of liberty and what counted for the person, what that person valued before the disease. There are some ways of living with dementia, even when accompanied, which may long remain preferable to others, which better answer to the past and present aspirations of persons with dementia and the purposes of the accompanying persons. It is thus essential that health professionals, as well as society in general, recognize and address this issue. (Edited publisher abstract)
Intergenerational support in a daily context
- Authors:
- FINGERMAN Karen L., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 56(5), 2016, pp.896-908.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Purpose of the Study: Using retrospective global reports, studies have found that middle-aged adults in the United States provide intermittent support to their ageing parents and more frequent support to grown children. To date, studies have not examined support middle-aged adults provide to different generations on a daily basis. Daily support may include mundane everyday exchanges that may (or may not) affect well-being. Design and Methods: Middle-aged adults (N = 191, mean age 55.93) completed a general interview regarding family ties, followed by interviews each day for 7 days (N = 1,261 days). Daily interviews assessed support (e.g., advice, emotional, practical help) participants provided each grown child (n = 454) and aging parent (n = 253). Participants also reported daily mood. Results: Most participants provided emotional support (80%), advice (87%), and practical help (69%) to a grown child and also provided emotional support (61%) and advice (61%) or practical help (43%) to a parent that week. Multilevel models confirmed generational differences; grown children were more likely to receive everyday support than parents. Providing support to grown children was associated with positive mood, whereas providing support to parents was associated with more negative mood. Implications: Daily intergenerational support was more common than studies using global reports of support have found. Some daily support may be fleeting and not stand out in memory. The findings were consistent with the intergenerational stake hypothesis, which suggests middle-aged adults are more invested in their grown children than in their parents. Nonetheless, middle-aged adults were highly involved with ageing parents. (Edited publisher abstract)
Mealtimes and being connected in the community-based dementia context
- Authors:
- KELLER Heather H., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 9(2), May 2010, pp.1941-213.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Mealtimes provide an opportunity for social activity and emotional connection. This study focused on the meaning and experience of mealtimes in families living with dementia in the community. Twenty six dyads and one triad, from Ontario, Canada, participated in the study, yielding 28 partners in care and 27 persons with dementia. They were interviewed both together and separately. Team analysis resulted in the development of a substantive theory which explains how eating together ‘mirrors the way we are’ and reveals the essence of what it is to be a person while living with dementia. Findings show that mealtimes reflected how these families were being connected, honouring identity and gender roles, and adapting to evolving circumstances. This study indentified, and describes, three ways in which being connected occurs at mealtimes: being face to face; participating psychologically; and getting and giving support. In conclusion, the authors indicate that understanding the role that mealtimes play in promoting improved connections, and thus relationships, within the dementia context has important implications for both formal and family care partners.
Disability benefits and paying for care
- Authors:
- BERTHOUD Richard, HANCOCK Ruth
- Publisher:
- University of Essex. Institute for Social and Economic Research
- Publication year:
- 2008
- Pagination:
- 15p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Colchester
The Attendance Allowance (AA) and the Disability Living Allowance care component (DLAc) are paid to elderly and/or disabled people who need help with activities of daily living Together, these benefits cost £9.2 billion per year Since the need for care is the main criterion entitling people to claim, one important question is whether they receive (enough) care. The Wanless review recommended integrating support for care costs from these disability benefits into the care system to improve targeting of resources. This paper discusses the impact of AA/DLAc on the well-being of disabled adults, and assesses the likely advantages, and disadvantages, of a possible reallocation of resources.
Who cares? A comparison of informal and formal care provision in Spain, England and the USA
- Authors:
- SOLE-AURO Aida, CRIMMINS Eileen M.
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 34(3), 2014, pp.495-517.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This paper investigates the prevalence of incapacity in performing daily activities and the associations between household composition and availability of family members and receipt of care among older adults with functioning problems in Spain, England and the United States of America (USA). The study examines how living arrangements, marital status, child availability, limitations in functioning ability, age and gender affect the probability of receiving formal care and informal care from household members and from others in three countries with different family structures, living arrangements and policies supporting care of the incapacitated. Data sources include the 2006 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for Spain, the third wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2006), and the eighth wave of the USA Health and Retirement Study (2006). Logistic and multinomial logistic regressions are used to estimate the probability of receiving care and the sources of care among persons age 50 and older. The percentage of people with functional limitations receiving care is higher in Spain. More care comes from outside the household in the USA and England than in Spain. The use of formal care among the incapacitated is lowest in the USA and highest in Spain. (Edited publisher abstract)
The last year of life in Europe: regional variations in functional status and sources of support
- Authors:
- HANK Karsten, JURGES Hendrik
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 30(6), August 2010, pp.1041-1054.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This article provides an initial account of the life circumstances of older people in 11 continental European countries during the year prior to their deaths. It focuses on regional variations in functional limitations and sources of support. The analysis is based on unique data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), where the second wave in 2006-2007 included an end-of-life interview about the first-wave respondents who had died since the baseline data collection in 2004-05. The interviews were provided by proxy respondents, 80% of whom were spouses. Using logistic regression, data from the 523 end-of-life interviews was analysed. The prevalence of functional limitations was found to be fairly consistent across Northern, Central and Southern Europe. Significant regional differences existed, however, with regard to the deceased respondents' main sources of support and the locations of their deaths. Northern Europeans were the least likely to receive help from their family only and the most likely to be supported by non-kin. They also exhibited the highest risk of dying in a nursing home. In Mediterranean countries, a pattern of exclusive family support and dying at home prevailed. The findings support the notion of a ‘mixed responsibility’ of families and welfare states as providers of support for older people in the last year of life.
‘I think I have had a good life’: the everyday lives of older women and men from a lifecourse perspective
- Author:
- GUNNARSSON Evy
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 29(1), January 2009, pp.33-48.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Through increased longevity, older people today live for many years in retirement. Research on the everyday lives of older women and men who are not in need of help from elder care is scarce. This paper reports an in-depth study of a small sample of such relatively healthy older people in Sweden. The aim of the study was to describe, analyse and interpret from a lifecourse perspective how older women and men experience everyday life. Twenty informants were recruited through advertisements and they were interviewed twice. They were aged 75 to 90 years at the first interview. The informants belong to the cohort that was born before the Second World War and they have witnessed and benefitted from both unprecedented economic growth and the development of the Swedish welfare state. Both the men and the women had been in paid work outside the home, and once retired they were determined to remain active. Even though many had found that their capacities had reduced, the informants spontaneously stressed the importance of continuing to be physically and mentally active. They saw life as meaningful because they sustained links in different ways with kin, friends and organisations. They wanted to remain active as long as possible, even when a decline in health reduced the range of activities that they could pursue.
Conducting research on home environments: lessons learned and new directions
- Author:
- GITLIN Laura N.
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 43(5), October 2003, pp.628-637.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
The study of home environments is a research domain within the field of environmental gerontology that addresses issues related to aging in place. Despite the importance of aging at home, there are few recent studies in this area and most are descriptive and lack theoretical direction. This article examines the current state of research on home environments from which methodological challenges and new directions for future research are identified. Three broad research queries are posed: What should we measure and why in home environments? How do older people and their family members use the home environment in health, illness, and caregiving? What are the interrelationships between the home environment, psychological well-being, and daily functioning throughout the aging process? Suggestions for future research on home environments are discussed and the implications for advancing environmental gerontology highlighted. Specifically, the home environment offers a testing ground for generic environmental constructs and their measurement as well as a unique setting from which new understandings and constructs of person -environment fit can emerge.
Caregiving and its impact on families of the terminally ill
- Authors:
- BRAZIL K., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 7(5), September 2003, pp.376-382.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Changes in the health care system have meant that increasing numbers of the terminally ill receive the majority of their care at home. The purpose of this paper was to document patterns of informal and formal care provided to the terminally ill and assess the impact caregiving has on family members. One hundred and fifty-one family caregivers were recruited for interviews from two community-nursing agencies in an urban region of the province of Ontario, Canada. The majority of respondents 119 (79%) were the female spouses of the patient. The numbers of caregivers providing assistance in specific functional activities were: bathing, 133 (88%); mobility, 123 (81%); dressing and undressing, 114 (76%); toileting, 101 (67%), and assistance at night 97 (64%). Sixty-two (41%) respondents reported that they had been providing some form of caregiving for over one year. They also reported that physical demands in caregiving increased substantially during the last three months of the care recipient's life. As family caregivers provided more assistance in activities of daily living they were at greater risk of reporting high caregiver burden. The results of this paper identify the types of care provided by family caregivers of the terminally ill and the impact these demands have on the family caregiver.