scholarly journals Myten om eldrebølgen

2018 ◽  
pp. 75-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
The Public ◽  
Demographic Challenges ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Over Time

Title: The myth of the “Elder Boom”. Summary: The ageing population represents today one of the most central demographic challenges in many countries of the world, including Norway. In the public debate about the ageing population, the metaphor “Elder Boom” is increasingly being used. This article gives insight into the discussion in Norway and shows that the metaphor “Elder Boom” does not represent a constructive contribution to the ageing-population debate. The article provides arguments against two implications of the “Boom” metaphor: that ageing people are unwanted in society, and that older people represent a huge and increasing amount of welfare dependency. It shows how society over time has strived to control diseases (such as tuberculosis) in order to increase life expectancy. Society does, in fact, see old age as one of its major achievements, not as a problem as implied in the “Elder Boom” metaphor. The article also demonstrates how social policies implemented in the elderly-care sector in Norway have increasingly reduced services to elderly people while increasing allocation to younger people still of working age. By pointing out these changes in old age and elderly care over time, the article is a contribution to put an end to the myth of an “Elder Boom”. Overall, it contributes to the understanding of how this myth, bolstered by the Western world’s ideal of (welfare) independence, both stigmatizes and misconstrues elderly people’s dependency on the welfare state, which is in fact decreasing for various reasons.

An End to Incrementalism? The Impact of Expenditure Restraint on Social Services Budgets 1979–1986

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Service ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Activity Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Total Budget ◽  
Service Departments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTThe theory of incrementalism is a long-standing and influential perspective on policy making and resource allocation in the public sector. Previous research on social services budgeting suggests that resources are allocated incrementally, although there has been some debate as to whether this would persist in an era of prolonged expenditure restraint. Incremental budgetary outcomes are operationalised as percentage changes in budgets pro-rata with percentage changes in the total budget, and as stable shares of total expenditure for each activity. Data for 99 English social service departments supports incrementalism in that budget shares change by only 1.8 per cent, but percentage allocations depart from pro-rata incrementalism by a mean of 74 per cent. The comparison of the two summary indices over time supports those who have argued that prolonged restraint would encourage non-incremental budgeting, but change in the agency's total budget does not consistently predict budgetary outcomes. The effect of restraint on incrementalism varies with the measure used and across the component activities of the measures, but there is enough evidence to suggest a significant decline in the level of incrementalism in social service departments. In particular, non-incremental budgeting is strongly associated with the growth of day centre expenditure on the mentally ill and the elderly before 1982–3, and after that with the pursuit of the ‘community care’ strategy within state provided services for the elderly and children. Incrementalism as a general theory of agency budgeting is limited in its ability to explain variations in the degree of incrementalism between agencies, between component budgets and over time. The conclusion suggests that further research should seek explanations for these variations in the varying balance of the competing forces which shape outcomes in welfare bureaucracies and in the relationship between these forces and the organisation's environment.

scholarly journals Population Ageing and Its Challenges: Filial Responsibilities for Elderly Parents in Lithuania

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
Margarita Gedvilaitė-Kordušienė
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Demographic Ageing ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Financial Difficulties ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Structure Changes ◽  
Working Age ◽  
And Gender ◽  
High Level

The paper addresses the questions of demographic ageing at the beginning of the 21st century and the attitudes about who should be responsible for the elderly care in Lithuania. The analysis of age structure changes revealed three ways of demographic ageing: ‘from below’ (the youngest part of the population is decreasing), ‘from above’ (the oldest part of the population is increasing), and decrease of the young working-age population. The analysis of ageing in Lithuania in the context of the EU revealed that Lithuania has moved from the group of the demographically youngest countries to the group of the oldest ones. This has happened in one decade and illustrates rapid ageing in Lithuania. Within such context, the question “Who should be responsible for the elderly care?” is of particular importance. Based on the second wave of the Generations and Gender Survey (conducted in 2009), the responses who should take care of the elderly are contradictory. The biggest part of respondents is in favour of the division of responsibilities for the elderly care between family and society. The same part of respondents considers this to be family responsibility. Meanwhile, financial support is mainly considered to be the responsibility of the society. The analysis of filial responsibilities for elderly parents revealed a high level of normative solidarity. Most respondents agree with the statement where the support type for elderly parents is not defined (i.e. that children should take responsibility for caring for their parents when parents are in need). When the types of support are defined, the respondents are also likely to agree (i.e. children ought to provide financial help for their parents when their parents are having financial difficulties; children should have their parents to live with them when parents can no longer look after themselves). Less agreement was found on the statement requiring the reorganisation of children’s lives in order to fulfil filial responsibilities (i.e. that children should adjust their working lives to the needs of their parents) and on the statement measuring gender division in care provision for elderly parents (i.e. when parents are in need, daughters should take more caring responsibility than sons). The differences in attitudes between children’s, parents’ and grandparents’ generations were not statistically significant. The logistic regressions revealed that significant predictors enhancing the chances of agreement on filial responsibilities are respondents’ gender, age, partnership and occupational statuses and type of residential area.

scholarly journals Knowledge Provision Model Through Distance Learning Method for Promoting Quality of Life of the Elderly in Rural Areas of Thailand

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Sumalee Sungsri
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
The World ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

Thailand is becoming an elderly society like many countries in the world. The number of elderly people is increasing continuously every year. In order to enable the elderly to live with good quality of life in the rapidly changing society, knowledge and information related to their health and living factors are considered to be necessary for them. Therefore, this study was carried out in order to develop a model of knowledge provision for promoting quality of life of the elderly in rural areas of the country. The samples were drawn from every region of the country which included 480 elderly people, 480 elderly caretakers, and 160 people representing the community leaders, community committee members and staff of local government agencies. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed for data collection. The study found that there were five areas of knowledge for promoting quality of life of the elderly: physical health, mental health, social relationship, economic, and learning. The model of knowledge provision to the elderly synthesized from the study could enable the elderly to gain necessary knowledge deemed useful for promoting their quality of life. The elderly, the elderly care caretakers and related people were found to be satisfied with the model.

scholarly journals Services for the Elderly in Israel: Privatization or Nationalization-An Unending Dilemma-A Reflection

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Avi Bitzur ◽  
Mali Shaked
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Aging In Place ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Baby Boomer Generation ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

The world in which we live is aging at a dizzying pace and expressions like “70 is the new 50” or the creation of concepts such as the “Silver Tsunami”, a nickname for the aging baby-boomer generation, have become an inseparable part of the reality in our society.On the one hand, the spread of aging is a welcome phenomenon – a sort of solution to the great human effort to reach immortality. On the other hand, however, old age can be perceived as a period burdened by economic, social and health-related challenges and it is becoming more and more clear that throughout the world, and in Israel in particular – the focus of this article - we must begin to prepare systems and services for the provision of rapid and comprehensive solutions for the tsunami of aging that befalls us. This stems from an understanding that the services we have in place today are not sufficiently prepared to handle the range of challenges and issues that will arise as a side effect of this phenomenon.The dilemmas that come hand in hand with the aging of our population are innumerable, however five particular issues stand out: the first is who should be responsible for the elderly and their care – the government or the person’s family? The second: Should all of the elderly receive the same care or should the treatment assistance vary differentially – meaning each elderly person should receive care according to his or her economic, social and health status and receive only according to their needs? The third is, should we provide assistance to the elderly directly (e.g. specific medications) or should the elderly receive financial assistance equivalent to the value of their needs and should we hope that they purchase the relevant medications, for example, and not something else instead? The fourth dilemma is: should we provide assistance for specific projects or should we work on long-term solutions through legislation to provide care and assistance to the elderly? Fifth, which is also the main questions, is should the services provided be privatized or should the treatment be the responsibility of the state and its institutions?The question of privatization or nationalization is the main focus of this article, and while we do not pretend to offer a firm stance on the issue, the authors offer to shed some light on the basic concepts associated with our aging population and how we as a society might handle these issues from the perspective of comparison between privatization versus nationalization of services rendered. The main focus of this article will be around the issue of the residential arrangements for the elderly: Mainly - should the elderly move into what are typically called “old age homes” or should we allow for “Aging in Place” – an approach that favors allowing the elderly to remain in their own homes for the remainder of their lives. Which is the most favorable solution? This issue also falls under the dilemma of whether or not homes for the aging as one possible solution should be a state-provided service or if “aging in place” will result in the privatization of the services granted to the elderly.The focus of this article is the situation in Israel, a country in which a significant portion of the population is elderly and where, by 2035, 15% of the population will be considered senior citizens. We will present the dilemma through the lens of the situation in Israel. The article shall begin with an introduction offering an in-depth examination of the dilemma presented. We will continue by presenting basic concepts from the general literature in the field of gerontology available today. We will then examine the situation in Israel between the years 2017-2019 and conclude by examining the concepts of privatization and nationalization in regards to services for the elderly, while once again emphasizing that comprehensive solutions to these dilemmas are unlikely to be reached in the near future.

scholarly journals Elder Health Literacy

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
The Public ◽  
Low Health Literacy ◽  
Populations At Risk ◽  
Health Education Materials

The public health impact of limited literacy has begun to be explored. The elderly and those with limited formal education are often the most vulnerable populations at risk of having low health literacy. Health promotion specialists must be cognizant of the literacy demands of health education materials (e.g., pamphlets, questionnaires) distributed to the elderly. Care must be taken to ensure that health education materials are both linguistically and culturally appropriate for whom they are intended.

Paying for Old Age: Past, Present, Future

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Thomas ◽  
Paul Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Old Age Support ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Old Age ◽  
The Uk

This chapter focuses on one fundamental aspects of an ageing population — how to pay for old age, individually and collectively. It also presents a study of the history of old age support in the UK and US and concludes that despite the quite different beginnings of the public pension and social security systems, government policy in both countries has become similarly locked in to a set of institutional arrangements which were devised to respond to immediate social and economic problems, but which have acquired a rationale and a dynamic of their own.

scholarly journals The Effective Management of Caries

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-5
Author(s):  
Ario Santini
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Dental Profession ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
Tooth Retention

Increased life expectancy is causing an explosion of the ageing population that will continue for the foreseeable future. Improved quality of life at old age will demand tooth retention and, consequently, the need for appropriate restorative care. Retaining teeth and maintaining them in spite of the multitude of risk factors associated with old age is a multifaceted challenge. The dental profession must be ever sensitive to the special needs of the elderly patient in order to render a service that is sensitive and caring. As the healthcare system as a whole adjusts to the changing demographics of the UK population, it is essential that dental professions effectively manage caries across the generations.

scholarly journals Exploring the facet of elderly care centre in multiethnic Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Filzah Md Isa ◽  
Shaista Noor ◽  
Goh Wei Wei ◽  
Sharifah Diyana Binti Syed Hussain ◽  
Hairunnisa Mohamad Ibrahim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Trained Staff ◽  
The Government

Purpose Malaysia is considered to be a relatively young country as compared to other older countries such as Japan, China and Australia in terms of the ageing population. However, until 2035, Malaysia will be in the ageing group countries as 15% of the entire population will be above 60 years of age. This situation is quite alarming as more and more ageing care centres will be required to fulfill the ongoing demands of the ageing population. The elderly care centres in Malaysia are categorised as public (sponsored by the government), private, and charity based that comes under religious centres. Currently, there are about 365 registered elderly care centres working in the main states of Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak, two states of the East Malaysia. Due to the importance of ageing population issues, the present study is conducted to explore the demographics facet of Malaysian’s elderly care centres. The main reason behind that lies on the fact that many of these centres are still labelled as being not well equipped and lacking behind in trained staff, equipment and also suffering from severe financial constraints but some still capable of working on a sustainability basis. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative Research Strategy has been adopted, and 28 centres throughout Malaysia are included in this study. About 18 Operators from different centres and 15 caregivers were interviewed to get the holistic view of ageing care and facilities in their respective centres. Findings The results highlight that the majority of centres are not receiving any financial help from the government, and few centres are doing small business such as supplying consumable medical and non-medical items and providing renting and rehabilitation centres facilities to sustain. The caregivers are facing issues such as excess workload, less salary, peer conflicts and non-cooperative centre leadership. Originality/value The present study may help to provide useful information to the policymakers, which enables them to formulate the strategies for ageing care centres in Malaysia. As this study provides insight of components that have an impact on the overall wellbeing of elderly care centres, hence, it could help the care services providers to act as a rising star for Malaysian’s social life comfort.

scholarly journals Nothing but Trouble: Studies on the Effects of Reforms in Elderly Care in Sweden and Poland

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Sobis
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
The Future

Abstract Reforms of the public sector, conducted in the spirit of NPM since the 1990s, are frequently studied by Western and Eastern scholars. The research shows national variations in how the NPM idea was translated and adapted into a country’s context and regulations. Care for the elderly is an interesting example of reforms conducted in the spirit of NPM, because it relates to welfare and health care and to the competences of provincial and local authorities in most European countries. This paper addresses the following questions: What do we know about the reforms conducted in the spirit of NPM and its practical implication within the field of care for the elderly during 1990 - 2010? What kind of knowledge about care for the elderly is still missing and should be developed in the future ? Th is paper conducts comparative research on what is known about the effects of the Swedish and the Polish reforms regarding care for the elderly. It argues that most literature points to negative effects, but also to the fact that there are still gaps in our knowledge about the effects of reforms concerning elderly care, especially regarding its organization. Hence, despite all the research done, we do not know what kind of social and health-care services for seniors represent the best practices for the future.

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