Absent Role of the State: Analysis of Social Support to Older People with Disabilities in Rural China

China is experiencing rapid population ageing and already has 44 million older people with disabilities aged over 59 years. Yet social support of these older people with disabilities is undeveloped and not well researched. This article contributes by using a disability rights framework (right to life and protection, economic security and social support) to analyze local cases in rural China. It finds that, although the family is still the main provider of economic and care support to rural older people with disabilities, the absence of a state role in welfare provision has negative impacts on the well‐being of older and younger generations in rural families.     

Intergenerational resource tensions in the workplace and beyond: Individual,interpersonal, institutional,international

The workforce is rapidly aging. Already at record highs, labor force participation rates of both over-55 and over-65 age segments are expected to nearly double in the immediate future. The current chapter describes how these sweeping demographic changes necessitate both the unprecedented utilization of older workers and intergenerational collaboration, but also present the danger of heightened generational tension. We describe the specific risk factors for such tensions, highlighting the presence of generational boundaries at multiple levels: (a) individual, (b) interpersonal, (c) institutional, and (d) international. Drawing from our own work and relevant management literature, we then identify three broad domains within which intergenerational tensions are particularly salient at each of these levels: active Succession tensions over enviable resources and influence (e.g., employment), passive Consumption tensions over shared asset usage (e.g., healthcare) and symbolic Identity tensions over figurative space (e.g., cultural fit) (SCI). We conclude with suggestions for potential interventions, and major open areas for future organizational research, both of which should focus on how to maximize the utility of unprecedented intergenerational collaboration.     

The Right to Take Risks: Alcohol and Older People

This paper examines policy and practice regarding the purchase of alcohol for older clients of home carers in three local authorities in the Greater London area. Data were gathered from interviews with home carers and their managers, focus group discussions, and a postal survey. None of the local authorities had a written policy or written guidance on alcohol purchase or on appropriate responses to the identification of problematic drinking in older clients. The findings illustrate the problem of balancing "rights" and "risks" within a philosophy of community care which emphasizes client choice and autonomy, and show how policy and practice are "tailored" by local contexts. It is suggested that both home carers and other domiciliary workers, as well as their older clients, could benefit from a clear code of practice regarding responses to alcohol consumption and problematic drinking by older people.     

美国老年人长期照护法律体系及其对我国的启示

以1965年美国老年人法案(the Old Americans Act)及之后的一系列修正案和相关法律法规为主要素材,着重从政府角度介绍美国老年人长期照护法律体系的建立过程以及在此过程中政府职能的相应转变。本文介绍了老年人长期照护的含义,归纳了美国老年人长期照护法律体系建立的意义,指明了老年人长期照护法律关系中政府的特殊地位,并结合中国目前老年人长期照护的现状对我国老年人法律体系的完善提出了一些启示。     

Old and Cold: Older People and Policies Failing to Address Fuel Poverty

Research, funded by the British Gas Help the Aged Partnership and carried out by the Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, explored the multidimensional issues of fuel poverty. A sample of older homeowners and private renters living in England, Scotland and Wales were interviewed in the Spring of 2003 to explore their experiences of keeping their homes warm in the preceding winter. It was found that almost half of the sample for whom full information was available were in fuel poverty. Government schemes failed to address some important issues. Grants were only available to those with “passport benefits”, excluding those who had minimal occupational pensions. Although most respondents had central heating, it was often old and ineffective, yet grants were not available to modernize them. Government schemes did not extend to paying for external and internal insulation for solid wall properties yet many older people live in such property. Several older people lived in rural areas not connected to mains gas. As mains gas currently provides the cheapest fuel, they faced high bills, yet government policies do not address the differential fuel costs in these areas. The culture of many older people in the study contributed to their living in cold homes. They lived frugally and usually turned heating off in daylight hours during winter. It was also a common practice to sleep in an unheated bedroom during winter and to keep the window open at night. Such practices are acknowledged to be unhealthy.     

Thriving Older African American Women: Aging After Jim Crow

ABSTRACT

This paper is based on the findings of small group discussions with self-defined successful African American women age 60+ in Charlotte, North Carolina. These women, who lived through the Jim Crow era and thrived in spite of the obstacles, continue to seek meaning in their lives through the roles they play in their families, churches, and communities. They feel strongly that there is a core of key values that continue to hold meaning and struggle to impart these values to those whose lives they touch. The key values identified include education, religion, work, and giving back to the community, and illustrate the integration of both traditional and nontraditional definitions of success. Mentoring is proposed as an important concept for understanding the lives of African American women in later life.     

Global Patterns of Healthy Life Expectancy for Older Women

SUMMARY

This paper focuses on patterns of healthy life expectancy for older women around the globe in the year 2000, and on the determinants of differences in disease and injury for older ages. Our study uses data from the World Health Organization for women and men in 191 countries. These data include a summary measure of population health, healthy life expectancy (HALE), which measures the number of years of life expected to be lived in good health, and a complementary measure of the loss of health (disability-adjusted life years or DALYs) due to a comprehensive set of disease and injury causes. We examine two topics in detail: (1) cross-national patterns of female-male differences in healthy life expectancy at age 60; and (2) identification of the major injury and disability causes of disability in women at older ages. Globally, the male-female gap is lower for HALE than for total life expectancy. The sex gap is highest for Russia (10.0 years) and lowest in North Africa and the Middle East, where males and females have similar levels of healthy life expectancy, and in some cases, females have lower levels of healthy life expectancy. We discuss the implications of the findings for international health policy.     

Senior centres in the lives of older Americans: implications for Chinese older adults

As a critical community resource, the senior centre has provided older Americans with a wide array of recreational, nutritional, health, and social service programmes. Funding resources include the Older Americans Act allocations, local organisations and governments, national charities, voluntary associations, and religious associations. The types of programmes offered at a senior centre reflect two models: social agency model or voluntary organisation model. The five most popular programmes are nutrition, health and fitness, recreation, volunteering, and social services. Participation in senior centre activities has positive impacts on the overall well-being of older adult participants. With the rapid growth in the ageing population and improved life expectancy in China, senior centres may serve as a focal point for Chinese older adults by providing a broad spectrum of social services to enhance the well-being of community-dwelling older adults, to support their independence and dignity, and to facilitate ageing in place in later life.     

Voices of Resilience

Abstract

Terminally ill older adults have the capacity to live well in the context of dying. Having negotiated a lifetime of challenges, they have resources to demonstrate resilience and achieve wholeness in life's final phase, but research has not adequately investigated this process. This qualitative research study considered the paths to resilience used by 30 older adult hospice clients in Kansas and Illinois. Responses were coded using the grounded theory method of Strauss and Corbin (1990) where data drives interpretation and text is coded into categories. Results centered on four themes that included: (1) a redefinition of self; (2) use of religion/spirituality or openness to uncertainty; (3) maintenance of social investments; and (4) guarding independence even as the scope of life contracted. Results imply that attention should be paid to building environments of wellness. This may be accomplished paradoxically through facilitating continuity of client interests and yet opportunities for creativity and growth as well. Listening with a healing stance and cultivating a habit of being fully present in interactions with clients assist in this process.     

Social work in the development of institutional care for older people in Slovenia

Social work in homes for older people in Slovenia has a special role since we have extremely institutionally-oriented care for older people. Characteristic of the development of Slovenian homes for older people is a shift in the dynamics of the orientation of the homes from a medical to a social one. Different factors influenced the shift towards a social orientation, i.e. the policy of establishing homes, the influence of sociogerontological principles, the development of social work and, recently, by their engagement with residents with dementia. In socially-oriented homes a different model of social work is used than in medically-oriented ones. The difference lies in social work methods as well as in the roles of the social worker in different areas of work with the residents, relatives and staff. By defining a model of social work in a socially-oriented home, a special field of social work with older people in the field of institutional care in Slovenia has been developed.