Welfare Reform on the Web (October 2007): Care of the elderly - overseas

Ageing in society: European perspectives on gerontology. 3rd ed.

J. Bond and others (editors)

London: Sage, 2007

The third edition of this text provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of ageing, exploring the key behavioural and social science theories, concepts and methods. It reflects new trends in gerontology, incorporating recent developments in theory and research as well as major international and interdisciplinary perspectives. A new chapter on cognitive ageing has been added and key themes, such as social protection, retirement, health and illness, and cultural images of old age are also critically examined.

Care management and care provision for older relatives amongst employed informal care-givers

C.J. Rosenthal, A. Martin-Matthews and J.M. Keefe

Ageing & Society, vol. 27, 2007, p. 755-778

Care management among informal caregivers includes care-related discussions with other family members or the care recipient about the arrangements for formal services and financial matters, doing relevant paperwork, and seeking information. The study examines the prevalence of this type of care , the circumstances under which it occurs, its variations by caregiver characteristics and its impact on the carers, using a sub-sample of 1847 full-time employed individuals who were assisting older relatives drawn from the Canadian 'Work and Family Survey'. The analysis shows that managerial care is common, distinct from other types of care, and that most care-givers provide both managerial and direct care. Care management includes both the orchestration of care and financial and bureaucratic management. Providing managerial care generates stress amongst women and interferes with work amongst men.

Warm hands in cold age: gender and aging

N. Folbre, L.B. Shaw, and A. Stark (editors)

London: Routledge, 2007

Public discussion of population aging usually focuses on the financial burden that increasingly elderly populations will impose on younger generations. Scholars give much less attention to who does the actual work of day-to-day care for those no longer able to care for themselves; and although women are the majority among the elderly, little is heard about gender differences in economic resources or the need for care. This book gives gender - and a full range of social and cultural differences - their rightful place in these discussions. It address, amongst other issues:

• the worldwide dilemmas of elder care
• the structure of income and care provisions for older populations
• the role of family, marital status, and class in these provisions
• the impact of polices affecting retirement age
• the role of social insurance in preventing poverty among elderly women