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VOLUME 7,
NUMBER 3, 2004
Family care of disabled old people in
Slovenia
Simona Hvalič Touzery
The author discusses family care of
elderly people in Slovenia. This topic is neglected and
overlooked by Slovenian social policy. Family carers -
mainly women - of old people are not officially acknowledged
for the role they perform. Due to the lack of interest
for this issue in Slovenian political and expert circles,
the information on such care are scarce. This article gives
a review of the cognitions acquired from the existing data
on family care in Slovenia.
Key words: family care, family
carer, old person, social policy, Slovenia
An old person in a modern family
Jože Ramovš
More than three quarters
of old people spend their old age until their death in
the family environment. However, modern family is facing,
apart from advantages, also severe obstacles towards good
relations with an old family member and his care: they
have little time and poor material conditions and they
are not trained for good intergenerational relations and
communication. The aspirations for placing old people into
massive institutions for elderly people are rapidly increasing,
for it is difficult to satisfy the need for interpersonal
relations. This article analyzes the problems, and describes
the experiences of the Anton Trstenjak Institute with the
programmes for training family for better relations with
an old family member as well as the idea of implementing
placement and care for elderly people in so-called "foster
families". They aim to develop through the experimental
project, the model of foster family that will unite some
major advantages of family and institutional care for elderly.
Key words: elderly,
family, adult foster care for old people, intergenerational
relations, communication skills
Help and support
to demented patients and their relatives in the light
of the activities of the association "Forget-me-not"
Branka Mikluž
Forget me not Alzheimer,s
Disease and Related Disorders Association of Slovenia is
non-governmental organisation that organises different
activities, aimed at assisting and supporting patients
with dementia and their family members, professionals,
lay caretakers, and all those who are professionally or
privately interested in the field of psychogeriatrics.
The activities of the Association are supported by the
Psychiatric Hospital Ljubljana. Through its programmes
the Association wishes to actively contribute to the process
of forming modern treatment strategies for patients with
dementia and their family members within the concept of
modern healthcare and social security system. In this article
the work of the telephone counselling line Spominčica (Forget
me not), the educational programme Ne pozabi me (Do not
forget me), and the self-help group of family members of
patients with dementia are presented. The article presents
the most important results of the surveys, performed within
the frameworks of individual activities.
Key-words: dementia,
family members, education, couselling, self-help
Being close to the old person through
a severe disease and dying
Majda Brumec
The author discusses
the basic tasks an elderly person should do before her
death, her relationship and acceptance of the disease and
the problems that the family carer of an elder person has
to face. The author emphasizes, based on her personal experiences
while accompanying a dying woman in an old peoples home,
the importance of including the patients' family in the
care when an elderly person is dying in an institution.
The second part of the article deals with the activities
of the Slovenian society Hospic in caring for the ill and
dying family members.
Key words: family care, elderly
person, dying patient, hospice, palliative care in hospice
Family Carers in
Germany: A national profile on current issues and future
challenges
Martha Meyer
In Germany families
are still the most important care-givers; but due to demographic
developments and social shifts in society future generations
will be involved to a much lesser degree in family care-giving
than at present. These trends will be intensified in the
future because it can be expected a decrease in the family
care-giving potential with increasing trends in female
employment rates and an increase in single-households.
At the same time it is estimated a growing number of older
people in need of care.
In Germany currently
(2001) the proportion of > 60 year-olds amounts
24,1 % and the > 80 year-olds is 3,9 %
in the total population. Until the year 2030 it is estimated
a proportional increase of > 60 year-olds
up to 34,4 % and the proportion of the > 80
year-olds up to 7,3 %. In this context the supply
and demand for care and care work has to be addressed in
the light of declining numbers of children, an increase
in the number of one-person-households, more equal workforce
participation between men and women, growing numbers of
older people living alone without children in private homes,
and their emerging preference for formal services -possibly
linked to the disappearance of family care resources.
Key words: family carer,
care-giver, mixed care-arrangements, care resources,
self-help-potential
Elderly care provided by foreign
immigrants: lessons from the Italian case
Marco Socci, Maria Gabriella
Melchiorre, Sabrina Quattrini, Giovanni Lamura
The following article
discusses the informal care of elderly people with the
emphasis on the care provided by immigrants. Italian experiences
of elderly care provided by immigrants are extremely diversified,
therefore this phenomenon is not easy to decipher. The
authors present the results of the survey among primary
family caregivers. One of the aims of this study has been
to obtain more knowledge on the opinions expressed by family
caregivers with regards to the employment of foreign assistants
for various caring activities.
Key words: elderly, informal
care, immigrants, Italy, survey data, caregivers |
