In Search of a Future for Large-Scale Care Homes in Flanders

Housing for older people in Flanders evolves toward small-scale facilities and better quality of life. Ageing population strains the means to achieve this to the limit. The authors investigate whether and how Flemish large-scale facilities can adapt to meet contemporary and future requirements of housing for older people. By analyzing current tendencies, they depict what this housing should look like, both now and in the future. They then investigate how an existing large-scale care home could fit this picture by using design as a mode of knowledge production. They propose to redesign the site such that its actual evolution would be thoroughly redirected. Beyond the facility at issue, the study shows how Flemish large-scale facilities could develop to keep playing a role in the future. They should timely adapt their size with qualities of small-scale housing schemes, and integrate in the neighborhood.     

Moving Past Picket Fences: The Meaning of “Home” for Public Housing Residents

The literature on the meaning of “home” has generally focused on creating lists without giving much attention to the context that shapes meanings. Recently, scholars have argued that to understand “home” it is important to know the range of meanings that different people in different contexts give it. In this article, we focus on the meaning of “home” for public housing residents and consider how they construct the meaning of “home” and if they find that meaning in public housing. Our findings suggest that respondents consider their public housing residences to be “home,” and they construct this meaning using the dimensions of home identified in the literature. However, how respondents used these dimensions were, in some ways, different because of the context of living in public housing. Respondents emphasized the social dimension, and this dimension appeared to organize the other dimensions. As such, our findings support arguments that context matters to the meaning of “home.” They also suggest that policymakers need to broaden their understandings of public housing, as places that can be “home,” and use this understanding when making decisions about housing transformations.     

Family Members' Reports of Non-Staff Abuse in Michigan Nursing Homes

Recent research showed that mistreatment of nursing home residents by other residents may be highly prevalent. The present study examined the issue from family members' perspectives. The data came from the 2005 and 2007 random-digit dial telephone surveys of Michigan households with a family member in long-term care. Based on family members' reports, about 10% of nursing home residents aged 60 and over were abused by non-staff in nursing homes (e.g., other residents and visitors) during the past 12 months. Family members were more likely to report non-staff abuse when the nursing home residents were younger, were female, had behavior problems, and had greater level of physical functioning. Family members who reported staff abuse were four times more likely to also report non-staff abuse.     

Retirement:

Stressful life events have been proposed as a possible cause of elder abuse. This study investigates the influence of retirement status on marital conflict and physical violence using a nationally representative sample of 1238 respondents aged 55 years and older. No significant differences were found between retired men and women compared to their nonretired counterparts on measures of depression, stress, marital conflict, and violence. Future research should examine other life events, such as serious illness of one partner or changes in living situation, that might have a more significant impact on marital discord in later life.     

Long-Term Care Funding in Canada

Summary

When Canada was founded, health care was delegated as a provincial responsibility. Although the federal government shares a portion of health care costs, it is not directly responsible for the planning, delivery, and governance of health services. The 1984 Canada Health Act set national standards for the provision of physician and hospital services, but it does not apply to home care and long-term care facilities. Consequently, each province has established a unique approach to long-term care, resulting in a health policy mosaic. This paper examines different approaches to funding long-term care with a particular emphasis on the impacts of regionalization and of the implementation of case-mix-based funding systems.     

The Relationship Between Caseworker Assessments of Clients’ Social Networks and Child Welfare Placement Outcomes

Policy changes in Ontario, Canada, emphasized the role of social supports as a protective measure for children at risk. The authors examined the relationship between worker assessments of total number and type of social support and whether an infant is removed from the mother’s care. Analyses indicated that infants were less likely to be removed from the mother’s care when caseworkers viewed maternal social supports as positive. This association was strongest when the caseworker identified only positive supports, with nonnegative contacts. Results suggest that caseworkers’ distinctions between positive and nonpositive social networks influence removal decisions.     

Oh,give me a home: diasporic longings of home and belonging

The conversations surrounding an ephemeral home – left behind decades ago or perhaps never even visited – always and continually begs the question: why? Why do we constantly talk about geographies to which we have little or no connection with such nostalgia and fervor? Why do immigrants pick a distant space and mark that territory as home, even as we settle into the spaces we presently occupy and slowly begin the journey toward some form of assimilation? Framed by these questions, this essay attempts to articulate – through a multi-site analysis including interviews, literary and media texts – how identities are shaped through – and in relation – to the nostalgic longings of non-white immigrant experiences. The essay contends that this nostalgic longing is constructed as a response to racial relationships in the United States that identifies non-white, in this instance South Asian Americans, as aliens and others who should go back home.     

Relationships Among Older Women Living in a Nursing Home

SUMMARY

Literature suggests that women's skills in establishing close ties with other women help sustain them in old age by giving them a sense of control over their lives. This paper questions how such a notion may apply to women in a nursing home setting and contrasts women's experiences with those of men. It is a reanalysis of data from a previously reported study of institutionalized elders' social networks, this time with a specific focus on women residents' relationships with one another. Here, I consider the role of negative interaction in personal relationships, the meaning of intimacy and reciprocity in the nursing home context, and issues of age and gender. The final section, implications for practice and future research, includes a discussion of the opportunities for and constraints on relationship formation.     

多中心治理视野下公共服务供给机制的改善——以N市J区政府购买居家养老服务为例

改善政府公共产品供给机制,是创新政府社会管理的主要内容。老龄化背景下,居家养老服务逐渐成为我国地方政府购买公共服务的重要内容,但目前仍处在部分地方政府的政策试点和探索时期。多中心治理理论作为一种多元主体互动的善治理论,在对改善和创新当前公共服务供给机制方面具有极大的理论解释力。购买行为内部化、购买程序随意化、购买力度小、社会组织发育不成熟等问题是当前政府购买居家养老服务所面临的主要问题。从购买者（政府）、承接者（服务机构）、使用者（老年人及其家庭）三个主体角度入手分析,将为政府购买居家养老服务及其供给机制的完善提供一个合理性视角。     

Secure Attachment to Family and Community

ABSTRACT

Disproportionately large numbers of high risk clients from Multiple Problem Families (MPFs) utilize a disproportionately large percentage of Medicaid, Health and Human Services. Clients from these families are involved in domestic violence, addiction, child abuse and neglect. They are over represented on the caseloads of state protective service agencies. The approach outlined in this paper is based on social attachment theory models. It stresses the use of long-term, home-based therapy, and community support agencies to establish and maintain safe secure attachment for these fragile families. The therapeutic goals are to foster attachments that lead to increased mentalisation, and to decrease the crisis-driven behavior that often results in high cost utilization of state services. A placement prevention model, outlined as an alternative “mentalising social system” approach, is proposed for treating disruptive MPF children. Family oriented, in-home, community-based treatment is found to be more cost effective and therapeutically helpful for these children than costly inpatient psychiatric admission followed by residential care.