Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 10 of 17
Migrant care workers as protective factor against caregiver burden: results from a longitudinal analysis of the EUROFAMCARE study in Italy
- Authors:
- CHIATTI Carlos, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 17(5), 2013, pp.609-614.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
EUROFAMCARE is a one-year prospective survey carried out to provide evidence on the availability and use of support services by family carers of older people in Europe. This analysis assesses the impact of privately employed migrant care workers (MCWs) on the burden of Italian family members who care for a disabled older person. In Italy, 990 family caregivers were enrolled and successful follow-ups were completed for 863 subjects. The survey also assessed the level of caregiver burden using the COPE index, which has three sub-sections: ‘Positive Value’ (PV), ‘Quality of Support’ (QS) and ‘Negative Impact’ (NI). This study used the one-year change of the COPE-NI as dependent variable and realised multilevel regression models to estimate the longitudinal predictors of caregivers’ burden increase. At a cross-sectional level, most burdened caregivers are those caring for a demented relative, with no educational title and looking after their own spouses. Longitudinally those employing an MCW are significantly protected against burden increase while those who cannot rely on the support of other family members are exposed to the risk of burden increase. Other formal services do not have any protective effect. The study suggests that employing an MCW, rather than using formal services, is associated with a reduction of caregiving burden. Further research should assess whether the shift in care responsibilities to the MCWs also implies a transfer of care burden, and understand how these workers can be better supported by existing formal services. (Edited publisher abstract)
Livindhome: living independently at home: reforms in home care in 9 European countries
- Authors:
- ROSTGAARD Tina, et al
- Publisher:
- Danish National Centre for Social Research
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 252p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Copenhagen
This report presents findings from the project Living Independently at Home: Reforms in organisation and governance of European home care for older people and people with disabilities (LIVINDHOME). The study provides an overview of recent and current reforms in the organisation and governance of home care systems in nine European countries, and analyses the intended and unintended results of these reforms, in particular, how the reforms have affected the organisation, supply and quality of care. The focus of the study is home care for older people and for people with disabilities. In countries that have more family-oriented welfare traditions (Austria, Germany, Italy, Ireland), comprehensive approaches to long-term care have started to develop only relatively recently. Despite increases in funding for long-term care, home care provision in Italy and Ireland remains highly fragmented, with major local variations in access to services. The second group of countries (Denmark, England, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) have had more or less comprehensive home care services in place for many years. These have been delivered by local authorities under a legislative framework set by central government. Reforms have here involved the introduction of market- and consumer-related mechanisms into the supply and delivery of home care.
Family carers' experiences using support services in Europe: empirical evidence from the EUROFAMCARE study
- Authors:
- LAMURA Giovanni, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 48(6), December 2008, pp.752-771.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This article explores the experiences of family carers of older people in using support services in six European countries: Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the UK. Following a common protocol, data were collected from national samples of approximately 1,000 family carers per country and clustered into comparable subgroups to facilitate cross-national analysis. Carers' use of available support services is limited across Europe but is considerably higher in Germany, Sweden, and the UK than in Poland, Greece, and Italy. Service use is more prevalent among wives and carers with stronger support networks and less frequent among working daughters with high levels of burden, suggesting the need for a reconsideration of eligibility criteria and better targeting of service responses. Access to and use of services is characterized by a divide between carers in northwestern Europe, who experience few difficulties other than the older person's refusal to accept the support offered, and carers in southeastern Europe, where service affordability and poor transportation present remarkable barriers. Concerns regarding the timeliness and quality of support are common to all countries. European Union-wide efforts to improve carer support need to focus on improving the care system's ability to provide timely, high-quality care delivered by staff who treat the older person with dignity and respect, and to enhance cooperation between health professionals (in all countries), informal networks (especially in southeastern Europe), social services (particularly in Sweden and the UK), and voluntary organizations (in Germany and the UK).
Day care for older dementia patients: favorable effects on behavioral and psychological symptoms and caregiver stress
- Authors:
- MOSSELLO Enrico, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23(10), October 2008, pp.1066-1072.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This Italian study assesses the effects of Day Care (DC) on older subjects with dementia and their caregivers. Thirty patients with dementia, consecutively admitted to a DC, were compared with 30 patients, matched for age and cognitive function, who received usual home care (HC). Primary caregivers were compared as well. At baseline and after 2 months, patients were assessed for cognitive and functional status, behavioural and psychological symptoms [Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI)] and psychotropic drugs use, and caregivers were evaluated for care burden [Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI)] and depressive symptoms. After adjusting for potential confounders, NPI score significantly decreased in DC group, with a reduction of psychotropic drugs prescription, whereas it increased in HC. No significant between-group difference was observed for cognitive and functional change. CBI significantly decreased in DC, but not HC, caregivers, with no significant between-group difference in depressive symptoms change.
Paying for care: lessons from Europe
- Authors:
- GLENDINNING Caroline, McLAUGHLIN Eithne
- Publisher:
- HMSO/Great Britain. Social Security Advisory Committee
- Publication year:
- 1993
- Pagination:
- 169p.,tables,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Comparative study looking at financial support for informal carers which has been introduced in some developed countries in the light of demographic trends experienced across Europe.
The burden of long-term care: how Italian family care-givers become employers
- Author:
- DEGIULI Francesca
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 30(5), July 2010, pp.755-777.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This qualitative research looks at the increasing demand for long-term care services for older people which has developed in Italy, due to an increasingly ageing population, rising female labour-market participation and the restructuring of the welfare state, how it has been met by mostly women immigrants, of many nationalities who are hired to provide individualised care in people’s own homes and other private settings, and why family care-givers choose this care-support option. Semi-structured interviews comprising over 30 questions, of between 60 and 100 minutes, were conducted with 26 family members who were caring for a disabled older person. Sections entitled, ‘how employing paid care-givers began’, ‘elders and residential facilities’, ‘family care-givers and public services: an unfriendly relationship’, and ‘how family care-givers became employers’ detail participants’ responses in their own words, and show most did not choose home care given by immigrants with economic reasoning alone, but to provide consistency in cultural, moral and traditional understandings of family responsibilities and care. Insights into Italian attitudes of the care-labour market and welfare state are seen, ranging from those with wealth’s preference for a free market to the majority view of a greater role for the welfare state in helping people cope with the increased burden of long-term care.
Quality of private personal care for elderly people in Italy living at home with disabilities: risk of nursing home placement at a 1-year follow-up
- Authors:
- BILOTTA Claudio, NICOLINI Paola, VERGANI Carlo
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 16(6), November 2009, pp.543-547.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The correlation between the self-perceived quality of private personal care for elderly people living at home and the 1-year risk of hospital admission, nursing home placement and death was evaluated. The study enrolled 100 outpatients who living at home (mean age 85 years), who had been receiving private personal care for at least 1 month, and 88 informal care givers. Quality of care was described by both the elderly person without overt cognitive impairment and their informal caregivers, and this was categorised for analysis as 'poor or fair' or 'optimal or intermediate'. Rates of hospital admission, long-term care placement and death were assessed at a 1-year follow-up. One year after enrolment, 67 elderly people were still living at home, 10 had been institutionalised and 23 had died. Forty-six had experienced at least one hospital admission. The elderly people belonging to the 'poor or fair care' group (n = 16) showed a higher risk of nursing home placement when compared to the people belonging to the 'optimal or intermediate care' group (n = 84), without there being any significant difference between the two groups in terms of baseline assessment and basic functional status at follow-up. The quality of personal care was not a predictor of either hospital admission or death. A poor or fair quality of personal care turned out to be a 1-year predictor of placement in a long-term care facility for community-dwelling older adults with a disability.
Governing home care: a cross-national comparison
- Authors:
- BURAU Viola, THEOBALD Hildegard, BLANK Robert H.
- Publisher:
- Edward Elgar
- Publication year:
- 2007
- Pagination:
- 224p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Cheltenham
This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the principle issues surrounding the governance of home care. In this context home care is taken to mean any care and support offered to older people in their homes. The analysis maps out governing arrangements in relation to formal and informal care services, informal care, care workers and users of care across nine countries: Estonia; New Zealand; Italy; the United Kingdom; Sweden; Japan; Germany; the Netherlands; the United States. The authors explore the ways in which country specific contexts shape governing arrangements and bring together insights form social care and public policy literature.
Transnational families and aged care: the mobility of care and the migrancy of ageing
- Author:
- BALDASSAR Loretta
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(2), March 2007, pp.275-297.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This paper is an ethnographic exploration of a seldom-discussed 'micro' dimension of transnational studies, the practices of long-distance family relations and aged care. The importance of time as a key variable in transnational research is demonstrated through comparisons of the care exchanges of three cohorts of Italian migrants in Australia and their kin in Italy. A focus on 'transnationalism from below', the more quotidian and domestic features of transmigrant experience, highlights the importance of considering the role of homeland kin and communities in discussions of migration. The analysis of transnational care-giving practices illustrates that migrancy is sometimes triggered by the need to give or receive care rather than the more commonly assumed 'rational' economic motivations. Transnational lives are thus shaped by the 'economies of kinship', which develop across changing state ('macro'), community ('meso') and family migration ('micro') histories, including, in particular, culturally constructed notions of 'ideal' family relations and obligations, as well as notions of 'successful' migration and 'licence to leave'.
Whose empowerment and independence?: a cross-national perspective on ‘cash for care’ schemes
- Author:
- UNGERSON Clare
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 24(2), March 2004, pp.189-212.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Uses qualitative data from a cross-national study of ‘cash for care’ schemes in five European countries (Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) to consider the concepts of empowerment and independence in relation to both care-users and care-givers. Locates the schemes along two axes, one of regulation/non-regulation, the other whether relatives can be paid or not. Each of the schemes has a different impact both on the care relationship and on the labour market for care. In the Netherlands where relatives can be paid, for example, a fully commodified form of informal care emerges; but in Austria and Italy with low regulation, a mix of informal and formal care-givers/workers has emerged with many international migrant workers. In the UK, direct payments allow care-users to employ local care-workers who deliver care for various lengths of time; while in France a credentialised system means that care-work is delivered by qualified workers but for very short intervals. Concludes that none of these schemes have a simple outcome or advantage, and that the contexts in which they occur and the nature of their regulation has to be understood before drawing conclusions about their impact on empowerment and independence on both sides of the care relationship.