VOLUME 9, NUMBER 3, 2006

Violence against the elderly: The research of printed media
Katja Tomažič, Alenka Zorč

The research focuses on the relation between printed media and violence against the elderly, as well as on the content of the articles, dealing with violent acts. This research tends to answer the following questions: how often do articles about violence against the elderly appear in newspapers, in which columns, how do journalists present the topic (style of presentation), what is the nature of the violent act, who was the perpetrator, what was the perpetrator's motive for the violent act, where and when did the violent act happen, what was the victim' s reaction and what were the consequences for the victim and for the perpetrator. The analysis of the research shows, that in most cases young male perpetrators financialy damaged older female victimis, which often suffered also physical injuries.

Key-words: violence, the elderly, printed media

The relatives' experiencing of caring for demented people
Silva Ljubej, Nataša Verdinek

In this article the authors presented the problems that family members of demented people are facing in their homes, which formal and informal services are available to them and which currently non-existing health and social protection services would be of help to them. Through analysis of the interviews with family members of demented people, demented people themselves and professional workers from the fields of health and social protection care, the problems and possible forms of assistance were shown. Caring for a person with dementia was a heavy psychological and physical burden for family members of demented people. Carers were also expressing the lack of information concerning dementia and the consequences. Currently the network of formal and informal help is not developed well. The available assistance is too expensive. They have established that professional workers were facing the lack of knowledge concerning dementia and they were often unable to offer their users an adequate help.

Key words: old age and ageing, dementia, formal help, informal help, caring for a person with dementia at home, family members' burdens

The potentials and needs of the third generation in the Slovenian municipality Komenda
Jože Ramovš

The article reports on the extensive research on the representative sample of the population older than 60 years in the municipality Komenda. This municipality that lies in the central part of Slovenia is well developed and has 4.500 inhabitants. In the year 2005, the Anton Trstenjak Institute of gerontology and intergenerational relations carried out a study as a first step of the implementation of the system of public programmes for quality ageing and solidarity between young, middle and third generation in the municipality for the next decades. In the introduction the author presented the intention, framework and the course of
study as well as defined the third generation. The theoretical starting-point of his study is the attention on the abilities and the needs of the third generation, from the aspect of an old person in her physical, emotional, spiritual, social, developmental and residential dimension. The second point of the study and all planned programmes in the municipality is the inseparable connection between quality ageing and solidarity between young, middle and the third generation. The central part of the article brings demographical data on the studied population, especially based on age groups, educational structure and material situation. All these indexes show a positive picture, with the highest level of unused possibilities discovered during the education of the third generation. The article also gives the overview of some of the information on the capacities and the needs on the three vital areas of ageing: physical mobility, emotional freshness and social flexibility in human relations. The situation on the physical level is satisfactory. The weakest part of the sustenance and strengthening the emotional capability is the quantity of the passive TV watching. On the social sphere of maintaining and strengthening the human relations one of the good possibilities is their great preparedness for intergenerational volunteering. The article brings only a part of the basic information on this most extensive systematic study of the third generation ever done on the Slovenian municipality level. The whole study was published in the popular form at the municipality Komenda. They used the results and the knowledge to prepare their plan of care for elderly and solidarity among generations for the next decades. With this year, they also started making a complex local intergenerational centre with the programmes to help the family with old member and old people at their home, day care, respite care, old people's home as a concept of a household groups, with numerous programmes based on voluntary work including all three generations, sheltered housing and programmes for informing the community on quality ageing and good intergenerational relations.

Key words: third generation, Komenda, good intergenerational relations, needs, abilities

Laško Senior Centre
Irenca Kovčan, Marjeta Ferlež

The authors briefly present a demographic picture of the municipality of Laško. Due to the ageing population, the needs for the community services are growing. The local intergenerational centres are among the cheapest. Yet they are a very efficient way of connecting numerous programs for good quality of old age in the community. The authors are discussing the positive side of such centres and describe the start up of Laško Senior Centre. In addition to this, she presents the results of a study on the attitude of retired people to such centres. The final part of the article discussess how the Centre works in practice.

Key words: municipality of Laško, Senior Centre, old people