老年人精神赡养的伦理思考

我国当今社会,老年人的物质需求已逐渐得到满足,老年人的精神赡养便成为了老龄人赡养的重要方面.近期关于老年人精神赡养如何实施的话题引起了人们的广泛关注.社会和政府在构建社会养老保障制度的同时应该着力从伦理的角度出发,建设一种精神赡养的社会伦理网络,使得老年人精神赡养得到广泛的伦理支持.     

Attached to Income Support Programs for the Elderly:

Although there is every evidence that the degree of stigma attached to income support programs for the elderly has been decreasing, only about one-half of the elderly individuals who are eligible participate currently in the Supplemental Security Income program (SSI). The present study explores issues of stigma as perceived by low-income elderly persons who were not receiving Old Age Assistance payments in 1973-a year before SSI went into effect. The results of regression analysis indicate that their attitudes toward issues of stigma are statistically nonsignificant predictors of whether they would contact social security ofiice in 1974 to inquire about their eligibility for SSI benefits. The data source for the present study is the Survey of the Low-Income Aged and Disabled (SLIAD) conducted in 1973 and 1974 by the Social Security Administration with the cooperation of the Bureau of the Census.     

Social Support and Government Policy on Services for the Elderly

Government policy on services for the elderly is to increase the provision of care in the community. This paper examines this policy in relation to informal help received from relatives and friends.
Drawing on the results of a pilot study of 92 people over the age of 75, registered in a group general practice, data are presented on the balance between informal and formal help over a group of activities of daily livhg. The main informal helpers are described with the range of activities for which people in the study were receiving assistance.
Community services are, at present, limited in the help they can provide for people in their own homes. If policies of community care are to be successful, then they must take into account the strengths and weaknesses of informal support. Using the data presented, suggestions are made a bout improvements in services including task specific services not currently provided and the definition of groups at risk of their social support breaking down.     

Social Service Outreach Programs Using Elderly Korean Immigrants' Church Ties

ABSTRACT

This study examined how Protestant Korean-American churches and their pastors can serve as ties between Korean seniors and agencies that offer social services. Working in partnership with the North Central Texas Area Agency on Aging (NCTAAA) and 2-1-1 services at United Way, the researcher asked 53 Korean pastors in two counties in North Central Texas to participate in the study. Each was asked about his willingness to host an outreach program. Thirty telephone surveys and 11 face-to-face interviews inquired about current services and pastor willingness to serve as gatekeepers for seniors. Translation and transportation were the top social service needs. All pastors in the study agreed that their churches should be a vehicle to provide social service information to seniors. Indeed, five churches accommodated program outreach offered by the NCTAAA and 2-1-1 services. The host churches tended to have highly structured, regularly scheduled programs (e.g., ethnic senior schools) already in place. A total of 405 Korean seniors participated in the outreach events, and 28 seniors were assisted in benefit counseling by telephone. Altogether, the results suggest that social service agencies can use the church ties of Korean seniors for program outreach.     

论农村老年弱势群体社会支持网络的建构

在社会转型过程中,农村老年人逐渐丧失传统社会尊者优势地位而逐渐沦为社会弱势群体.依据社会支持理论,弱势群体问题不是因其自身原因所造成,而恰是其缺乏必要社会支持的表现.社会支持理论强调通过干预个人的社会网络来改变其在社会生活中的困难境遇.因此,建立和完善农业大专院校以及专家学者对农村老年弱势群体的专业性正式社会支持的长效机制;发挥社会工作者及青年志愿者在农村老年社会工作中的重要作用;强化以血缘关系、地缘关系为基础的非正式支持,以及增强农村老年人的自养能力,是建构农村老年弱势群体社会支持网络的重要途径.     

The Medieval Marquee: Church Portal Sculpture as Publicity

The complexity of movie marquees is well-known to those who frequent films with the avidity of the penitent seeking heaven. Thesymboliccontent of a marquee that has the name of the late John Wayne in The Searchers is subtly but forcefully apparent; we know what values are contained i n the lean and lone figure of Wayne, and behind him the values in Hollywood as transmitted through John Ford, the director. So it is with the “medieval marquee,” the Church portal sculpture, as Charles Altman makes clear, with the Church proclaiming its values, as it shores up the common people's belief in salvation and ensures the status quo of a class structure. The Church in the Middle Ages, according to Altman, is theentrepreneur, just as the film industry today mediates public taste with its seductive appeal; in both instances, it is the “well-planned marquee” which lures its customers inside.     

Evaluation of a Carer Support Scheme for Elderly People: the Importance of 'Coping'

Correspondence to Dr Derek Milne, District Psychology Service, St George's Hospital, Morpeth, Northumberland NE61 2NU. Summary One year's consecutive referrals to an Age Concern carer supportscheme entered an evaluation of the carers' stress, coping andstrain. Unlike a comparison group who did not use the scheme,these carers of elderly dependants had significantly poorerpersonal coping strategies, which were bolstered by the scheme.Stress and strain were high for both groups of carers, indicatingthat the critical variable in their continued role as carerswas coping. Implications for the formal services are discussed.     

Gray Peril or Loyal Support? The Effects of the Elderly on Educational Expenditures*

Objectives. Do large concentrations of elderly represent a “gray peril” to maintaining adequate educational expenditures? The gray peril hypothesis is based on an assumption of instrumental self‐interest in political behavior. In contrast, we argue that loyalty to community schools competes with economic self‐interest and that older citizens are heterogeneous in their preferences. Methods. We test these arguments and their implications for public school finance using a data set of more than 9,000 school districts. Results. The data show that longstanding older residents represent a source of support for educational expenditures while elderly migrants lower spending. Further, this divide among the elderly and their impact on policy outputs depends on how states finance local public education and on aspects of state and local tax policy. Conclusions. Elderly concentrations are a financial asset for a school district unless the senior community includes a large number of new arrivals. The design of tax policy can have enormous impact on the depth of political cleavages and their ultimate impact on public policy. The results are consistent with the idea that loyalty—an emotional bond between residents and their community's institutions—competes with and often trumps instrumental self interest.     

农村丧偶老年人的家庭养老境遇——基于山东省三乡镇210名农村老年人的调查

通过对山东省三乡镇的210名农村老年人进行调查,对农村老年人的养老现状有了更清晰的认识:农村老年人丧偶后开始正式获得子女提供的经济供养;丧偶老年人主要的经济来源是其子女提供的经济供养,但获得子女的生活照料和精神慰藉却很少;在失去配偶的照料和精神慰藉的同时,丧偶老年人的家庭角色逐渐边缘化。传统家庭养老模式对丧偶老年人养老的承载能力止于物质层面,丧偶老年人生活、精神层面的养老需求亟待多元化养老主体的供给。     

Population Size,Local Autonomy,and Support for the Political System*

Objectives. Does size of democracy shape citizens' support for the democratic regime? Previous literature demonstrates that a variety of political contexts are associated with the level of system support among citizens, yet none has tested the effect of a fundamental contextual feature of contemporary societies—size of democracy—on system support from a cross‐national perspective. Methods. Survey data for nations of different sizes in Europe, North America, and Oceania are analyzed using a hierarchical generalized linear model. Results. Empirical analysis shows that less populous states and highly decentralized states demonstrate higher system support among citizens, and it offers some evidence that the negative effect of population size is moderated by the level of decentralization. Conclusions. My findings are consistent with the common expectation that smaller size of nation and governments “closer to the people” are preferred. Further, they have substantive implications for contemporary democratic governance.     

Informal Support Networks Meet Health needs of Rural Elderly

While major studies of informal support systems have been conducted in urban areas, it is important to gain comparable knowledge for the rural and small town communities in which so many older people live. This exploratory study had as its overall purpose to examine the association between community based informal support networks and the ability of older adults to carry out daily activities in a rural area-the measure of the functional health status of the person. Within a rural perspective the outcome of the study included: replication of urban data in terms of network identification; the generation for further study of two hypotheses related to the association of network functionality and functional health and one hypothesis related to the association of network proximity and functionality; and recommendations of unstudied areas of concern for a better understanding of network functionality.     

Reverse Mortgage as an Income Stabilizer for the Elderly in Korea

This paper examines the features of reverse mortgages in Korea, comparing beneficiary and non‐beneficiary groups in relation to income security for elderly homeowners without sufficient income. In addition, this study estimates how much poverty rates would decrease if all elderly single and couple households joined the program. A reverse mortgage was implemented in 2007 in Korea as a government guaranteed scheme for elderly homeowners. Notwithstanding the contribution of the reverse mortgage program, many elderly homeowners do not utilize the system as a useful means to earn additional income. Given the high elderly poverty rate and incomplete social safety net in Korea, the program should be extended to supplement the insufficient income of elderly “house‐rich but cash‐poor” households. The paper first reviews reverse mortgage policy details. We then investigate key characteristics of the beneficiaries and compare beneficiaries and non‐beneficiaries based on nationwide survey data. Finally, we estimate the potential income‐raising effects of the program and draw implications of the income security policy in Korea and reconfiguration of the welfare state in a broader context.     

Russia: The Official Church Chooses the State

The author argues that relations with the state are still much more important to the Moscow Patriarchate than relations with its own flock.     

The Development of Group Services for the Elderly

No abstract available for this article.     

敬老院老年人精神生活状况的调查与思考——以长沙市F敬老院为例

人口老龄化是世界性问题,中国已经步入老龄社会,人口老龄化压力已经显现,并将随着老龄化的发展而不断加重。机构养老成为越来越多的老年人的选择。为了了解机构老年人的精神生活状况,笔者对长沙市F区敬老院进行了调查。调查发现,老年人对敬老院的日常生活照料满意度较高;但老年人精神生活存在的问题比较多,如:社会交往少、精神负担重、敬老院精神服务能力与水平有限等等。要改善老年人的精神生活状况,一是要加强护理人员的专业培训,提高护理人员的专业水平;二是建立专业的社工站,拓展老年人精神生活的专业支持;三是构建多元服务模式,丰富老年人精神生活;四是建构老年人社会支持网,发挥社会支持系统的作用。     

Family Support and Health Status of the Elderly in Imo State of Nigeria

This article highlights ageing issues in a community in a developing African nation. This exploratory study uses quantitative and qualitative methods. Seventy–five elders were sampled from Imo State, Nigeria. Results indicate that family support is potentially available at a ratio of 3 to 1 with most of the elderly depending on their children, wives, in–laws,and God. The elderly express satisfaction with family care and they rarely live alone. The elders attach greater value to non–material (physical presence/emotional) support. The most prevalent acute and chronic illnesses of the elderly are respectively malaria, followed by severe headache, flu, sleeping problems; and rheumatism/arthritis, followed by failing vision, general weakness and hip problems. The implications of these findings for policy are considered.     

The Crimes Against the Elderly

No abstract available for this article.     

我国人口老龄化背景下养老产业发展问题研究

在新经济常态背景下,随着人口老龄化程度不断加深,我国财政支出将面临越来越大的挑战,发展养老产业将成为我国应对人口老龄化问题的必然选择。养老产业的发展有利于减轻政府负担,提高老年人生活质量,促进产业调整,缓解就业压力。我国的养老市场规模庞大,并且供不应求,政府高度关注养老产业,为我国大力发展养老产业提供了可行性。但是,尽管目前"保险系""央企系""房企系"等社会资本已经注入,养老产业仍然存在着政府的引导和支持力度不足,缺乏专业人才,相关产业整合难度大,国民养老观念落后等问题。因此,我国应尽快完善相关政策以加强引导和扶持的力度,积极调动社会资源使投资主体多元化,加强养老产业人才队伍建设,加快转变养老观念。     

Elderly African Americans as intragenerational caregivers

A growing number of older Americans serve as caregiving resources for their elderly spouses, partners, relatives, and/or friends. Yet, little research has addressed the impact and implications of this trend among African Americans. This article describes the results of a qualitative study examining the intragenerational caregiving experiences and perspectives of two cohorts of African Americans (urban and rural, N = 129) between the ages of 58 and 89. Its findings reveal important differences and commonalities associated with elderly African American caregivers and their care giving in urban and rural settings. Additionally, the study suggests that volunteer caregivers can often fill the void left by partners and relatives who predecease or fail to assume responsibility for the care of their elderly relatives. Their efforts do not displace those of friends and family members, but rather address unmet needs in available care. The discussion focuses on the implications of the study findings for public policy and practice.     

全球化影响下的中国基督教会

中国教会真正得到发展是自20世纪80年代以来,也就是从中国实行改革开放政策以来。而这也正是世界全球化的时代。随着中国改革开放步伐的加快,中国教会与中国社会一样,越来越感受到全球化所产生的影响,这种影响是双重的,有正面的,也有负面的。