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Poverty, deprivation and life satisfaction among Hong Kong older persons
- Authors:
- CHEUNG Kelvin Chi-Kin, CHOU Kee-Lee
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 39(4), 2019, pp.703-721.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This investigation examines the association of four measures of poverty (income-based, expenditure-based and asset-based poverty, and material deprivation) with life satisfaction. Perceived life satisfaction was measured among 1,410 older Chinese persons aged 65 and over. Besides life satisfaction and measures of poverty, the study assessed socio-demographic variables, financial strain, health indicators, and social and community resources. Those who faced expenditure-based poverty, material deprivation and asset-based poverty reported a significantly lower level of perceived life satisfaction, while the association between expenditure-based poverty and life satisfaction was found to be the strongest. Other factors that had an impact on life satisfaction included gender, education and marital status; financial strain; social support; the number of close family members and friends; self-rated health; functional capacity; perceived memory; pain; sleep quality; neighbourhood collective efficacy; and engagement in cultural and entertainment activities. From the theoretical perspective, the findings have strong implications for the understanding of the factors that shape the perception of quality of life in old age. Our results also have important policy implications for the official measurement of poverty, monitoring of the poverty situation and the development of anti-poverty measures to help older persons living in poverty to improve the quality of their lives. (Edited publisher abstract)
Senior volunteerism in Japan: a policy perspective
- Author:
- CHEN Li-Mei
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing International, 38(2), 2013, pp.97-109.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
This paper will discuss the development of Japan’s older adult volunteerism and how today’s older adult volunteerism needs to change in the face of a super-aging society coupled with changing social and economic needs. How Japanese organisations and communities can promote and sustain senior volunteerism will be examined in terms of four aspects of institutional capacity: access, information, incentives, and facilitation. The paper suggests that senior volunteerism is necessary for Japan’s aging society to provide meaning in later life, and sustain good health and well-being. However, to encourage volunteerism among aging baby-boomers, Japan needs to alter its traditional approaches, such as its top-down approach to organising volunteerism and its focus on moral citizenship. With unique lives and experiences, the largely middle class baby-boomer generation will probably seek an experience of older adulthood different than that of their predecessors. Social work in Japan needs to expand its professional boundaries beyond poverty work to support the diverse needs of the aging population. (Publisher abstract)
Aging in European societies: healthy aging in Europe
- Authors:
- CONSTANTINOS Phellas, (ed.)
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Publication year:
- 2012
- Pagination:
- 285p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Between longer life expectancies and declining birth rates, Europe’s elder population is growing into a sizable minority with considerable impact on health systems, and economies. Those investing in the health of older adults need a double perspective: the social and clinical complexity of aging and the larger forces shaping these experiences. This book examines aging trends across the continent, analysing individual and collective variables that affect the lives of older adults, and drawing salient comparisons with other parts of the world. An interdisciplinary panel of experts provides theory, research, and empirical findings in key areas such as family and social supports, physical and cognitive changes, dependence and autonomy issues, and living arrangements. Sections include: the potential for technology to improve elders’ quality of life; dementia and quality of life issues. changes in functional ability with aging and over time; family networks and supports in older age; and factors influencing inequalities in quality of life.
Living and caring for all
- Author:
- LLOYD James
- Publisher:
- International Longevity Centre UK
- Publication year:
- 2008
- Pagination:
- 26p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Drawing on and responding to Living and Caring? An Investigation of the Experience of Older Carers (a study exploring the effect of care provision on the lives of people aged 50 years and older), this report aims to explore key strategic public policy issues concerning unpaid care provision by older people. It discusses factors shaping the provision and patterns of unpaid care by the older population, reviews the outcomes that older carers experience, and summarises research evidence about the quality of life of older carers. It considers the future of carers policy, commenting that demand for social care will increase in line with population ageing and increasing longevity, and recommends increasing the supply and availability of formal care, and dispersing the burden of unpaid care by increasing the number of unpaid carers through approaches such as improved support for carers.
Market assessment of housing options for older people: a report for Shelter and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Authors:
- PANNELL Jenny, ALDRIDGE Hannah, KENWAY Peter
- Publisher:
- New Policy Institute
- Publication year:
- 2012
- Pagination:
- 90p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This market assessment of older people’s housing in England examines both specialist retirement developments and mainstream housing suitable for people aged 55 years and above. Specialist housing is restricted to older people, and often has special design features and facilities, and usually some visiting or on-site support. Mainstream housing includes ‘ordinary’ housing (often the family home) and also housing considered more suitable for older people (such as bungalows) or with adaptations to suit older peoples’ needs. This study addresses 3 broad groups of questions: choice, availability and affordability; quality of life; and market impacts. It looks not only at the current situation, but also at projections forward to 2033. The report concludes that demographic changes require a change in the housing stock so that more homes are suitable for older people, be it specialist housing, lifetime homes or adapted homes. Analysis suggests that the size of the specialist housing stock will need to increase by anything between 35% and 70%. The housing market and constraints to public spending mean that it is unlikely that the growth in the specialist housing stock required will be achieved without some policy intervention. In addition, new developments need to diversify the specialist housing that is currently on offer.
Adult lives: a life course perspective
- Editors:
- KATZ Jeanne, PEACE Sheila, SPURR Sue, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 496p.
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
With the ageing of the population in Western industrialised societies, there is a growing need for a comprehensive look at the past, present, and future of adult lives. This diverse collection of articles takes a holistic approach to understanding ageing, drawing on biography and autobiography to contextualize the process. These articles contribute to a shared life course perspective to understand how those living and working together in an ageing society relate to each other. The book covers a number of key issues including: quality of life; social relationships; the environment; human rights; ethical considerations; social work issues; international issues; and the complexity of real lives. This book will be of interest to those who wish to contextualise ageing, understanding how lives can be transformed through policy and practice, and consider the lived experience.
Extending working lives? Employability, work ability and better quality working lives
- Author:
- MALTBY Tony
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Society, 10(3), July 2011, pp.299-308.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Faced with a changing economic and demographic outlook, this short article focuses upon UK practice and presents an approach that has been used across continental Europe for many years. The central argument is that improving the quality of life of older adults is not simply and only about a better ‘work–life balance’ and other policy prescriptions, but the adoption of a holistic approach to worker well-being and health, broadly defined at the level of the enterprise. The article provides a short review of existing policy and describes yet distinguishes between employability and Work Ability. It then suggests that the Work Ability approach used for over thirty years in Finland be trialled in the UK and that the UK government provide fiscal incentives for UK enterprises to adopt and implement such preventative approaches within a broader age management structure. In conclusion, Europeans are likely to work to a more advanced age in future than in the immediate past and out of choice. It is time, the author suggests, to focus upon the positive contributions that older people can and do make to society.
Extending quality life: policy prescriptions from the Growing Older Programme
- Author:
- WALKER Alan
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Policy, 35(3), July 2006, pp.437-454.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Place of publication:
- Cambridge
This article provides a policy-oriented overview of the five-year ESRC Growing Older Programme of research on quality of life in old age: the largest UK social sciences research endeavour to date in the field of ageing. By way of an introduction to the Growing Older Programme, its main objectives are stated and some of its unique contributions to knowledge and research methods are summarised. Then the bulk of the article focuses on the relationship between research and policy: first in general terms and then specifically with regard to the operation of and outputs from the Programme. The particular methods used by the Programme to engage with the policy process are described, within a broad enlightenment framework. This is followed by an outline of the key elements of a multi-dimensional approach to extending the quality of later life. The five priority elements of this skeletal strategy – inequalities in old age, environments of ageing, economic and family roles, participation and involvement, and frailty and identity – are derived from the Growing Older Programme's comprehensive evidence base. In each case the policy implications of the research evidence are illustrated. Finally, the role of older people in living their own lives of quality is discussed, and the results of the Programme are used to show how aspects of both structure and agency combine to determine the quality of later life.
The Aged Care Act 1997: improving the quality of residential aged care
- Author:
- VALENTINE Bruce
- Journal article citation:
- Australian Social Work, 53(1), March 2000, pp.15-19.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This article reviews the benefits claimed to flow from the commencement of the Australian Aged Care Act 1997. It is concluded that in restructuring residential aged care services the Commonwealth Government has withdrawn from its regulatory responsibility of ensuring residents receive adequate standards of care. To legitimate its actions the Government contractualised the relationship between service providers and residents, to the detriment of the residents.
Improving care in nursing and residential homes
- Authors:
- BARTLETT Helen, BURNIP Stephanie
- Journal article citation:
- Generations Review, 9(1), March 1999, pp.8-10.
- Publisher:
- British Society of Gerontology
Looks at how a new regulatory framework, national required standards and a Royal Commission on long-term care reflects a greater determination on the part of the Government to protect vulnerable old people living in residential settings and promote their quality of life.