Welfare Reform on the Web (July 2003): Care of the Elderly - Overseas

BJORN AGAIN

M. Ivory

Community Care, May 15th-21st 2003, p.36-37

Presents a case study of a project in Sweden which aims to use computers to engage older people in the social and political life of their communities.

CLIENT-CENTRED, COMMUNITY-BASED CARE FOR FRAIL SENIORS

S. A. Chapman, N Keating and J Eales

Health and Social Care in the Community, vol. 11, 2003, p.253-261

Anticipates an increase in the number of frail elderly needing nursing level of care in Canada. Examines a client-centred community based care project in western Canada for those requiring the level of care normally provided in nursing homes. Three different programmes of care were examined. Finds they were successful in caring for residents as individuals and in keeping them connected to the community. Identifies some areas where there were problems and suggests how they could be solved. Argues that by adopting the suggested recommendations the programmes could continue to operate.

ESTABLISHING GERIATRIC HEALTH CENTERS: CAN THE AGING NETWORK SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATE THE CHANGING HEALTHCARE SYSTEM?

J. M. Iutcovich and D. J. Pratt

Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 17, 2003, p.231-250

Study examines the development of partnerships between area agencies on ageing, senior centres and medical providers in Pennsylvania in an effort to establish senior health centres designed to deliver primary care, using a holistic approach to meet both the medical and the social needs of the elderly. Study provides an exploratory analysis of the process for establishing such interorganisational linkages, covering the factors that facilitated their development and the key challenges they faced.

THE INFLUENCE OF INCOME ON THE EXPERIENCE OF INFORMAL CARE GIVING: POLICY IMPLICATIONS

A. M. Williams and others

Health Care for Women International, vol. 24, 2003, p.280-291

Canada, like other developed countries, has reduced formal, publicly funded support for the elderly in favour of "family-focused care". The burden of providing this care has largely fallen on unpaid female friends and relatives. At the same time health care in Canada is being privatised, with many options now open only those who can afford to pay. Study used data gathered by postal questionnaire to examine differences in the experiences of low income and better off informal caregivers. Results showed that the low income group felt more overburdened with their caregiving role than the better off who could afford to pay for services.

THE LIMITS OF MULTICULTURALISM IN ELDER CARE SERVICES

S. Brotman

Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 17, 2003, p.209-229

Article reports on some of the central findings of a qualitative institutional ethnographic study on health care access among minority ethnic elderly women in Canada. It addresses the question of how multicultural programmes and policies operate in elder care services and how they are experienced by minority ethnic elderly female clients and their service providers.

RECONCEPTUALIZING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN "PUBLIC" AND "PRIVATE" ELDERCARE

C. Ward-Griffin and V. W. Marshall

Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 17, 2003, p.189-208

Paper critically reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on existing conceptual models of the relations between formal and informal care, advances an alternative model rooted in socialist-feminist theorising, and illustrates the utility of this model with data from a study of the boundaries and connections between community nurses and family caregivers in the context of Canadian society.