Welfare Reform on the Web (March 2004): Care of the Elderly - Overseas

DEVELOPMENTS IN HOME HELP FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE IN DENMARK: THE CHANGING CONCEPT OF HOME AND INSTITUTION

M. Lewinter

International Journal of Social Welfare, Vol. 13, 2004, p.89-96

Official statistics on provision of home help in Denmark are compromised in that they include figures for help delivered to people living in residential care. Many municipalities have integrated home help and nursing-home care and report this as home help. There has been a polarisation in size of care packages:

• a smaller group of recipients comprising people in residential care have larger packages,
• whereas those delivered to people living in their own homes have decreased in size.

MODERNISATION AND AGEING THEORY REVISITED: CURRENT EXPLANATIONS OF RECENT DEVELOPING WORLD AND HISTORICAL WESTERN SHIFTS IN MATERIAL FAMILY SUPPORT FOR OLDER PEOPLE

I. Aboderin

Ageing and Society, Vol. 24, 2004, p.29-50

Modernisation and ageing theory has provided the main framework for explaining the decline in familial support for older people. It stresses the role of weakening traditional norms of family and filial obligation in eroding support. As a result of the growing influence of individualistic values and lifestyles, support to older people is no longer compelled by custom. The main alternative explanation derives from materialist perspectives and emphasises the role of poverty and economic hardship in the decline of support. The article exposes the limitations of both theories and proposes an alternative approach.

TOWARDS DISENTANGLING POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES IN CANADA'S AGEING POPULATION

S.A. McDaniel

Canadian Public Policy, Vol. 29, 2003, p.491-510

The article explores the social and policy implications of population ageing in Canada. It analyses working patterns by age, retirement patterns, productivity shifts, pension investment shifts, the move towards economic liberalism and away from social protection, changing family patterns, and shifts among generations in terms of wealth inequality. It concludes that demographic ageing is not a primary force in driving policy, or in transforming the economy.