Care of Older Persons

This book explores the implications and significant ethical, social, economic and health challenges that an ageing world population presents. It provides valuable insights on concerns related to providing, organizing, planning and managing care for older persons in both formal and informal settings. As the number of older persons increases rapidly around the globe, caring for them is a very important aspect of all ageing and aged societies. While in most countries the care of older persons is provided informally by family members, the changing social scene, family structures and work and employment patterns are leading many nations to create provisions for formal care through institutions or paid services of caregivers. This book offers perspectives on formal and informal care from countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, the USA, India, South Africa and Poland, among others. The essays in this book underline a rights-based approach and focus on ethical, social, economic, health and legal aspects of care as they pertain to the universal phenomena of ageing as well as the specific demographic and epidemiological realities of the selected countries. They discuss concerns such as long-term care provisions, catering to the needs of people affected by dementia, providing residential care, taking the needs of family care providers into account, the growing requirement for paid care workers and channelizing training of both skilled and semi-skilled care providers to suit the needs of older people. This volume would be of interest to scholars and those working in the fields of sociology, health studies, age and ageing, psychology, social work, medical sciences, nursing and public policy. It will also be useful to NGO sector workers, administrators, as well as grassroots workers involved with the care of older persons.

Mala Kapur Shankardass, an international consultant, is an academician, researcher, writer and an activist with higher educational qualifications inclusive of doctoral and post-doctoral specialization in sociology, health social sciences, and gerontology. Now retired, she has 38 years of teaching experience and has held important positions as a senior faculty member at the University of Delhi, India. She continues to lecture at different academic departments in both Indian and foreign universities and is also involved with prestigious assignments with various institutions, including the United Nations.

List of Figures x List of Tables xiv Contributors xvi Foreword xxiii Acknowledgements xxvi PART I Care perspectives 1 1 Care of older persons: A discourse analysis 3 Mala Kapur Shankardass 2 Ethical challenges in the care of aging population: Experience from the United States of America 17 Letha M. Joseph 3 Seniors' poverty in British Columbia, Canada: A social justice issue 32 Karen Lok Yi Wong 4 End of life care and the ageing population: Asian perspectives 44 Jagriti Gangopadhyay 5 Why restructuring residential care matters: A global perspective 59 Sumana Das 6 Developing a model for caregiver's training and support 73 Ruchika Kuba and G. Mythili 7 Emerging challenges of care of elderly: Need for newer strategies for nurses in India 93 Sandhya Gupta PART II Family care, community care and long-term care 109 8 Sense of belonging in community-based care among South African older persons: A rapid review 111 Keshenaa Fakir, Erika Hitge, and Jaco Hoffman 9 Population ageing and care arrangements in later life in the Netherlands 140 Louise Meijering and Tobias Vogt 10 Aged people care in Poland 157 Artur Fabis and Joanna K. Wawrzyniak 11 Care for the elderly in Singapore: Policies, delivery systems, and paradigms 173 Ho Mun Wai 12 From policy to practice: A comparative Anglo-German view of long-term care provision for older people 201 Ingrid Eyers, Kimberly Stoeckel, and Laura Allen 13 Canadian experience in providing care in long-term care homes 218 Suraj Laxman Gopinathbirla and Kanwal Shankardass 14 Expanding policies for hiring foreign long-term care workers in Japan: Current status, challenges, and responses 230 Noriko Tsukada PART III Dementia care 263 15 Formal community-based care: Older adults' experiences of home-based and day care services in South Africa 265 Maryna Rankin and Jaco R Hoffman 16 Caring for older people with dementia: A global perspective 280 Frances J. Morris 17 Caring for people with dementia in Australia 299 Claire Morrisby and Barbara Blundell 18 Care services for older adults with dementia in Türkiye 325 Isil Kalayci 19 Dementia care: Management and challenges in India 337 Esha Arora, Rhea Wason, and Ashish Goel 20 The San Lawrenz Dementia Friendly Community Pilot Project 347 Pauline Refalo and Maria Aurora Fenech 21 Epilogue on Care of Older Persons: What the future holds 374 Mala Kapur Shankardass Index 377