Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
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Caring: the importance of third age carers
- Authors:
- ASKHAM Janet, et al
- Publisher:
- Carnegie United Kingdom Trust
- Publication year:
- 1992
- Pagination:
- 100p.,tables,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Dunfermline
Research study that set out to look at: the proportion of third age carers providing informal care; possible future trends; areas of concern; the financial costs; and future prospects. Also considers how policies might be modified to alleviate problems experienced by carers and to create better opportunities for them.
Substitution between formal and informal care: a ‘natural experiment’ in social policy in Britain between 1985 and 2000
- Author:
- PICKARD Linda
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 32(7), October 2012, pp.1147-1175.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This article examines substitution between formal and informal care in England between 1985 and 2000. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was an increase in long-stay residential care for older people, which came to an end around the mid-1990s. The article examines whether this increase in formal services led to a decline in informal care, and whether this was subsequently reversed. The paper shows that there was a decline in provision of intense co-resident care for older parents between 1985 and 1995, which came to an end in the mid-1990s. These trends in intergenerational care were related to changes in long-stay residential care. In particular, controlling for age and disability, there was evidence of substitution between nursing home and hospital care and co-resident care for older parents. The author concludes that a key policy implication is that an expansion of very intense formal services for older people could bring about a decline in very intense intergenerational care.
Differences and similarities in monetary benefits for informal care in old and new EU member states
- Authors:
- RIEDEL Monika, KRAUS Markus
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 25(1), 2016, pp.7-17.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article presents an overview of the monetary benefits available in the context of long-term care provided by family or other informal carers in 11 old and 10 new EU member states. All but one country in our sample offer at least some monetary benefits that can be used to help finance informal care. Old EU member states tend to direct benefits to individuals in need of care, whereas new EU member states place more emphasis on benefits for carers. Among new EU member states, monetary benefits are less often means-tested and tend to be lower compared with benefits in old EU member states. Because social policies in many countries increasingly rely on monetary benefits rather than on benefits in kind and because the share of informal care in the overall provision of elderly care will scarcely decline, monetary benefit incentives for labour market participation need to be carefully monitored. (Publisher abstract)
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.
Social work and elder abuse: a Foucauldian analysis
- Author:
- POWELL Jason L.
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work and Society: International Online Journal, 10(1), 2012, Online only
- Publisher:
- University of Bielefeld
This paper argues that an accelerating interest in the safety and financial security of older people is central to understanding modern care policy. Specifically, it explores how a surveillance culture is being developed to stabilise community care policy at a time of considerable underlying uncertainty. The theoretical work of Michel Foucault is drawn upon to raise questions of power, of unintended consequences, and of the impact of care managerial techniques. The paper argues that the 'discovery' of elder abuse legitimates practices in which the state monitors and co-ordinates but does not intervene. This idea can be presented as ‘inspection minus intervention equals surveillance’. Social policy has transferred the financial and emotional responsibilities for care from welfare professionals to informal carers, leading to a state of uncertainty. The paper argues that, in order to provide a mechanism for formalising informal care and to legitimise a role for welfare professionals, there has been an increasing emphasis on forms of abuse perpetrated by carers on older people. The relationship between the state and older people is therefore being reduced to one of surveillance and the enforcement of an oppressive notion of what community obligation might entail.
Informal caregiving for elders in Sweden: an analysis of current policy developments
- Authors:
- JOHANSSON Lennarth, LONG Helen, PARKER Marti G.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 23(4), October 2011, pp.335-353.
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Care of older people is a public responsibility in Sweden, with public policies and programmes providing health care, social services, pensions, and other forms of social insurance. However, families are still the major providers of care for older people. In the context of a 2009 amendment in the Swedish Social Services Act recognising the importance of informal caregivers, and policies promoting support for family caregivers, this paper examines the process leading to the amendment and its implications for the division of responsibility between the state and family. It looks at the Swedish context and background, services for older people and their families, the development of social services legislation from the 1980s, "rediscovery" of the family, and the role of voluntary and private sectors. It also discusses the new legislation and support to caregivers, noting that family caregivers have received more recognition but that reductions in public services have had negative repercussions for caregivers, and that it is too early to say how the changes will affect informal caregivers.
Informal carers: who takes care of them?
- Authors:
- HOFFMANN Frederique, RODRIGUES Ricardo
- Publisher:
- European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 16p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Vienna
The aim of this policy brief is to look at what is known about who provides informal care and who benefits from it, what differences, if any, are found between different countries, and what policies are in place to support informal carers, focusing mainly on countries of the European Union and using data from national and international sources and qualitative information from the European Centre's publication Facts and Figures on Long-Term Care - Europe and North America. It provides an overview of informal care giving across Europe, highlighting common characteristics and differences across countries, and discusses whether informal care in its present form is sustainable and why it may come under pressure in future, and recent policy developments in long-term care including providing cash to carers and the importance of providing services to carers. The authors conclude that informal caregiving remains the backbone of care provision in Europe and is the preferred care option for many dependent older people, that complete replacement of informal care by formal care services is neither financially feasible nor socially desirable, and that policy-makers should therefore ensure that carers' needs, as well as those of the care recipients, are taken into consideration and met, commenting that some countries already provide carers with a statutory right to receive an assessment of their needs for services in addition to services for older people, as is the case of the United Kingdom.
Paying for long-term care: moving forward
- Author:
- JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Place of publication:
- York
The UK lacks an adequate system for paying for long-term care. It falls short in three main ways: In overall funding levels, there are already signs that needs are going unmet. Without change, private individuals will have to foot a growing share of rising costs, and many will find this hard to afford. In coherence, multiple funding streams create confusing and sometimes irrational, overlapping ways of paying for care. In fairness, in terms of the way costs and responsibilities are shared, family carers often feel unsupported. Means-testing causes widespread resentment by taking away most of people's assets and income before they can get state help.
Carer break or carer-blind? Policies for informal carers in the UK
- Author:
- PICKARD Linda
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 35(4), September 2001, pp.441-458.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article examines three policy statements on informal carers published in the UK in 1999: the National Strategy for Carers, the report of the Royal Commission on Long Term Care and the note of dissent by two members of the Royal Commission. These three documents contain two rather different approaches to policy for carers. On the one hand, the National Strategy and note of dissent emphasise respite care or short-term breaks for carers, and are concerned with sustaining the well-being of carers as well as ensuring the continuation of caring itself. The Royal Commission, on the other hand, emphasises support for the older or disabled person who is being cared for, as a means of supporting the carer, and advocates 'carer-blind' services. It is argued that this policy contains within it the potential to substitute for or replace the carer and that this represents a radical new departure for social policy for carers in the UK. The advantages and disadvantages of the two policy approaches are explored. It is argued that policies for carers should include both services specifically for carers, like breaks from caring, and services provided for the cared-for person, like domestic and personal care services. Wider issues about the proper boundary between family and state care are explored.
Blair takes a battering
- Author:
- JACOBS Bill
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 5.10.00, 2000, p.12.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Recounts the highs and lows of the Labour party's conference in Brighton.