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Practitioners’ perspectives on choice for older spousal caregivers in rural areas
- Authors:
- CASH Belinda, HODGKIN Suzanne, WARBURTON Jeni
- Journal article citation:
- Australian Social Work, 69(3), 2016, pp.283-296.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Recent shifts toward individual choice and consumer-directed practices largely conflict with traditional expectations of familial obligation and informal caregiving. The research reported on in this paper aimed to understand how practitioners’ perspectives of spousal caregiving obligations impact on choice in rural communities. Seven focus groups were conducted in rural and outer regional areas of North East Victoria, comprising 42 practitioners who work with older couples who reside in the community. Thematic analysis revealed practitioners’ personal values and constraints of the direct practice environment impact on the experience of choice for older Australians. This discussion considers the problematic nature of choice in policy and practice for older people and their caregivers in light of these findings. (Publisher abstract)
Making nursing homes more community-oriented: insights from an exploratory study in Germany
- Author:
- HAMEL Kerstin
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 36(4), 2016, pp.673-693.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Nursing homes have been criticised for restricting the lifestyle of older people in need of care. As concepts of elder care have changed and services in formal care have developed further, efforts towards deinstitutionalisation have led to the enhancement of community care models. This paper discusses how ideas of community care can also influence reform within institutional care. The study focuses on the challenges and obstacles of practice change arising in German nursing homes by opening up to civil society principles. Applying the model of organisational hybridisation, the concept of 12 German nursing homes regarding family and community partners' involvement were analysed through explorative qualitative interviews with nursing home directors. The nursing homes have conceived various forms of co-operation with community actors. Nevertheless, emerging tensions between state, market and civil society conceptions of the nursing homes limit practical change. The ‘organisational hybridisation’ has generated two general problems to be discussed here: first, the difficulty nursing homes have in opening their doors to new perceptions of care as well as to the interests of their community partners. Second, the fact that the nursing homes tend either to strive for an integration in community life or for the maintenance of a ‘sheltered zone’ for their residents implies that nursing homes' definition of ‘normality’ has a strong influence on their chosen concept of care. (Publisher abstract)
Long term care for older people, social productivity and the 'big society': the case of dementia
- Authors:
- BAMFORD Sally-Marie, BERRY Craig
- Publisher:
- 2020 Public Services Hub
- Publication year:
- 2012
- Pagination:
- 32p.
- Place of publication:
- London
The Big Society agenda is particularly relevant to long term care for older people. The aim of this paper is to consider how or whether the Big Society can deliver care for older people with dementia. Little attempt has been made by policy-makers to relate dementia to the Big Society agenda. There seems to have been a silent assumption that Big Society applies most to those with physically disabilities and older frail people who require ‘a bit of help’ around the home or in going out. In contrast, dementia can result in a devastating loss of cognitive and intellectual functions, often accompanied by changes in psychological and emotional states, and straddles the frontier between health and social care. The first section of this paper considers the failure of the welfare state in meeting the needs of long term care. The bedrock of dementia care is provided in the form of informal care by family and friends. The paper then looks at dementia in more detail, before outlining how the Big Society and social productivity concepts may be relevant to considering how dementia is treated and managed. The paper argues that responding to the challenge of dementia will require enormous investment by the state in coming decades. Although there is certainly a role for individuals, families and communities in dementia care, it is necessary to move towards the more expansive concept of social productivity, in order to think more holistically about how to mobilise a range of public and private resources in long term care provision.
Dementia in my family: taking an intergenerational approach to dementia
- Authors:
- HARDING Ed, et al
- Publisher:
- Alliance for Health and the Future
- Publication year:
- 2007
- Pagination:
- 27p.
- Place of publication:
- London
There are around 5.5 million Europeans with dementia. There are more new cases of dementia per year than of stroke, diabetes or breast cancer. With the ageing of the population and no cure in the foreseeable future for dementia, these numbers are bound to increase in years to come. This report helps to promote an intergenerational approach to dementia. The report begins by highlighting key facts about dementia. It then describes the role that the family plays as well as the impact of dementia on the entire family, before moving on to looking at successful initiatives across Europe in which different generations work together to lessen the burden of dementia in their communities. Finally, the book proposes ways in which communities may support all generations as they cope with dementia within their families. The report is based on a workshop held in June 2006 at the European Social Services conference in Vienna.
Growing old in a new estate: establishing new social networks in retirement
- Authors:
- WALTERS Peter, BARTLETT Helen
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 29(2), February 2009, pp.217-236.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The benefits of a strong proximal social network for people as they advance in age are well documented, but the continuation or development of social networks may be challenged when people relocate to a new home on retirement. This paper explores the personal network development of older residents who have moved to a new suburban (but not age-specific) residential development in a general urban setting. Drawing on a case study of a new outer-suburban ‘master planned estate’ in Brisbane, Queensland, the findings from interviews with 51 older residents and participant observations of a community group are presented. The study suggests that a traditional ideal of unreflexive community of place was an unreliable source of durable social bonds in contemporary fragmented and mobile social conditions, where the proximity of family members, durability of tenure and strong neighbourly ties are not inevitable. One successful resolution was found in a group of older residents who through exercising agency had joined a group the sole focus of which was social companionship. The theoretical bases of this type of group are discussed and its relevance is examined for retirees who have chosen to live in a residential environment for lifestyle and amenity reasons, away from their lifelong social networks.
Community caregiving partnerships in aging: promoting alliances to support care providers
- Author:
- KROPF Nancy
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 14(1/2), 2006, pp.325-338.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Although greater numbers of families are providing support to older adults, a lack of comprehensive programming in resource allocation continues to exist at the social policy level in the United States. This article explores how community caregiving partnerships may contribute to a solution, and highlights three models. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre, Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580).
'Lots of little kindness': valuing the role of older Australians as informal volunteers in the community
- Authors:
- WARBURTON Jeni, MCLAUGHLIN Deirdre
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 25(5), September 2005, pp.715-730.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This paper describes the ways in which older people contribute to their communities and families as informal volunteers. It challenges current ways of thinking that assign an economic value to the productive activities undertaken by older people. Using qualitative data from a study of older people resident in Queensland, Australia, the paper explores the ways that older people contribute to their families and to the community and the outcomes associated with these activities. Two specific themes emerged from the data: first, the ways in which older people contribute to strong inter-generational relations, and second, how they provide essential mutual support that permits many older people to remain living in the community. These contributions, while often small in themselves, are in aggregate critical both to family functioning and to the maintenance of sustainable and healthy communities. Many are reciprocal interactions that add value to the lives of individuals and offer positive social roles in later life, and they may be particularly important for those from minority cultural backgrounds or at risk of social isolation. The findings suggest that older people are integral to community and civil society and, therefore, that social policy should respond to the ageing of Australia's population and recognise the positive contributions of older people, rather than emphasising the costs of demographic change.
The balance of benefit: a review of intergenerational transfers in Australia
- Authors:
- LEGGE Varoe, O'LOUGHLIN Kate
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 40(5), October 2000, pp.605-611.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This article reviews the financial and non-financial transfers taking place intergenerationally and between older people and the community. Within the public arena, governments provide major financial contributions through money transfers and the provisions of residential support. Older people provide considerable community support by undertaking voluntary services. This article concludes that the balance of benefit is reversed. Older people are major monetary contributions to adult children and their families in the transition to an independent status. Older people are also the principal carers of their frail-aged partners, thus reducing both the burden of care on their adult children and government institutions.
Social exclusion in the inner city: elderly people in Bethnal Green
- Author:
- PHILLIPSON Chris
- Journal article citation:
- Generations Review, 8(3), September 1998, pp.12-13.
- Publisher:
- British Society of Gerontology
Reports on a study of social exclusion of older people in the inner city of Bethnal Green.
Family caregivers of older adults, 1999–2015: trends in characteristics, circumstances, and role-related appraisal
- Authors:
- WOLFF Jennifer L., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 58(6), 2018, p.1021–1032.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Purpose of Study: To assess trends in family caregiving between 1999 and 2015. Design and Methods: The authors constructed nationally representative profiles of community-dwelling older adults receiving help with self-care or indoor mobility and their “primary” family or unpaid caregiver using the 1999 and 2004 National Long Term Care Survey, 2011 and 2015 National Health and Aging Trends Study, and linked caregiver surveys. Trends are examined. Results: Older adults receiving help were incrementally younger, more racially diverse, and better educated in 2015. Primary caregivers overwhelmingly continued to be spouses and adult children. Arrangements were increasingly 4 years or longer in duration (shifting from 44.8% in 1999 to 60.5% by 2015). On average, primary caregivers provided about or in excess of 30 hr per week at all four time points. Spouses provided fewer hours of care, were twice as likely to work, and half as likely to report substantial emotional, physical, and financial difficulty due to caregiving in 2015 than 1999. Adult children provided comparable hours of care to a more impaired population; a similar proportion reported substantial caregiving-related difficulty at each time. Use of respite care nearly doubled from 8.5% in 1999 to 15.7% in 2015. Dementia caregivers were less likely to report substantial physical and financial difficulty and more likely to use respite care in 2015 than 1999. Implications: Family caregivers’ circumstances generally improved during the 16-year period. Results diverge from prevailing concerns regarding the state of family caregiving and demonstrate the importance of longitudinally monitoring trends in late-life family caregiving. (Edited publisher abstract)