Informal Care Essay

Roberto and Mancini (2009) states, “Informal care is generally provided by untrained social network members known as family or friends which generally takes place in the home of either the caregiver or the care recipient. Informal caregivers also play an important role in long-term care settings where they offer companionship, emotional support, and assistance with daily activities (e.g., feeding, bathing etc)”.

Social Care services sector’s role is to deliver social care systems which offer care equality for all individuals, while allowing people to retain their independence, dignity and control. During the past 20 years the need for social care services in the UK slightly increased. This is mainly due to demographic factors such as an increasing aging population. Therefore this means that more care and residential care homes are needed. Also, a number of women with small children, who decided to come back to work, is growing. This means that there is a need for new nursery and pre-schools, which would look after the children.

Following secretary of state, John Reid’s statement in 2005 declaring that social care “should be about helping people maintain their independence, leaving them with control over their lives, and giving them real choice over their lives, including the services they use. Services must recognise the changing world, our changing attitudes and our ageing population”. This assignment will analyse the present affairs in the social care world and see if the UK has stepped closer to John Reid’s vision.

Australia’s aged care system is funded and regulated through a complex set of arrangements, involving different levels of government and a diverse range of stakeholders, including informal carers and formal care providers from the not-for-profit (religious and charitable), for-profit and government sectors. These arrangements reflect, in part, the complexities inherent in the broader Australian health and welfare system. Aged care services in Australia range from basic home support services in the community (including assistance with house cleaning and meals) to more intensive care services delivered both in the care recipient’s own home and in residential settings. Government support for these services occurs through a number of programs, subject to different regulatory arrangements, that have emerged with the evolving roles of different levels of the government in the provision of health services, welfare services and income

A caregiver is anyone who provides care for another person in need, such as a child, an aging parent, a husband or wife, a relative, friend, or neighbor. A caregiver also may be a paid professional who provides care in the home or at a place that is not the person's home (Pinquart, M., & Sorensen, S. 2003).

Centuries ago as people aged and needed assistance with care including hygiene, meals, toileting and moving around, were given assistance from members of their family within the home. Most of these cares were provided by elderly patient daughters to care for them so they can continue to live home. The number of females in the workforce has increased over the years however the increase of females in the workforce is affecting the age females are having children therefore parents are entering their elderly years when their daughters are in their prime of their work years making it difficult to be available to provide care. Life expectancy has increased which means there are more people living longer and entering the age when they may need care. People who need assistance with care tend to find it hard to seek help, as they believe this is a sure sign they are getting old as they can no longer effectively care for themselves and sometimes takes a toll on the self esteem. Children of elderly patients tend to reluctant to admit they can no longer care for their parents as this may imply they no longer care to their parents. As older people we often pride on our independence and privacy and the thought of giving that control someone else is very scary for many elderly patients. This does hinder elderly patients from starting the process of seeking long term care (LTC).

This is tantamount to elder abuse, because Hazel from 24/7 KIT continues to perpetrate this scheme upon Norma & Christina (employees of Park Plaza), to contract illegally with these vulnerable seniors who pay privately for this additional personal care. I pray that you will investigate this matter and bring this unscrupulous operator into compliance with the "Home Care Protection Act". On a follow call the RP stated that Park plaza does provide the basic services to residents such as bathing, grooming and etc. RP stated that Park Plaza contracts with 24/7 Keep in touch for additional help and for fall risk residents that need extra care. RP stated that he has talked to Bruce about what is going on in his facility (which has been told to RP by his caregiver in the facility) and that he would give him a week before RP would report what’s going on. RP stated that he has a caregiver that is still at the facility that provides care to a resident (name not provided). In addition, the RP stated that his caregiver is being intimidated by staff to let 24/7 KIT provide care to her

As the ageing population and the demand for social care provision increases (ARK, 2010), the demand for informal caregiving is becoming an important concern for researchers and policy-makers. The 2011 consensus of Northern Ireland carried out by Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency indicates that out of a population of 1.8 million there are 213,980 informal carers in Northern Ireland, this figure is higher than any other UK jurisdiction; informal care includes looking after fail, ill or disabled family members, friends or partners (NIHRC, 2014). Research undertaken by the University of Leeds found that the economic value of unpaid care in Northern Ireland is at £4.4 billion (NIHRC, 2014). However care can no longer be taken for granted and this notion of the ‘care gap’ has been highlighted due to key demographic, epidemiological and social changes (Hodgkin, 2014). These changes that challenge the informal care system are the ageing population, changes in the family structure and the entry of women in the labour market (Hodgkin, 2014). In addition to demographic changes, there has been a significant body of research with growing interest in the concern for informal caregiver’s social, financial and emotional wellbeing (Hodgkin, 2014). Research findings suggest burnout and the heavy burden on families may lead to aggressive behaviors towards the elderly and even physical and mental abuse (ARK, 2010). The caregiver burden refers to the multi-dimensional challenges of

Chapter 1 introduces the argument for examining informal eldercare and offers a glimpse into the lives of diverse informal elder caregivers. The chapter provides a brief introduction to the theoretical perspectives that frame this proposal, ethics of care or care ethics, Black feminism and critical race feminism perspectives. The chapter also poses questions as to why this proposed study should proceed to the next phase, as well as, its significance, limitations, and delimitation. In addition, it provides the definition of terms to enlighten readers who are unfamiliar with aging and eldercare terminology. Chapter 2 will contain the review of related literature and research related to the problem being examined, whereas chapter 3 will furnish

With care recipients set up with health monitoring technologies at home, spouses and children are likely to become involved in the caring process and informal caregivers may have to assist kinspersons with advanced care needs by means of sophisticated technology. This paper investigates some of the ethical implications of a near-future shift from institutional care to technology-assisted home care and the subsequent impact on the care recipient and formal- and informal care

Close to 2% of the population required long-term care. 80% of those in nursing homes were unable finance the full cost of their care. As a result, communities and states became overburdened resulting in spiraling deficits. Similarly, many relatives were informally caring for loved ones in need of LTC services. Upwards of 90% of the care services required by the frail and disabled elderly were provided by the individual’s family, friends, and neighbors. The burden of care was typically left in the hands of daughters or daughter-in laws. However, as Germany began to shift away from a single breadwinner based economic system, more women began to enter into the work force; Thus, decreasing the number of people available to provide home-based care despite the increasing number of elderly persons in need of care. Likewise, the increasing the opportunity cost associated with staying at home and taking care of the needy elderly without compensation deterred family members from pursing such a route. Due to the lack of home based health care agencies, short-term and part-time nursing-homes, many informal care givers were forced to stop working. As their resulting financial situation worsened, many informal care givers were forced to send their suffering relatives to long-term nursing homes prematurely.

Guilliland and Pairman defines midwifery partnership as a relationship of ‘sharing’ between the woman and the midwife, involving trust, shared control and responsibility and shared meaning through mutual understanding (2010, p. 7). Continue care model is a holistic approach in assessing a woman’s health with equal emphasis on her physical, emotional and social aspects of wellbeing in a partnership model of midwifery care. The sharing knowledge and experience of the midwife will enable and support the woman in monitoring her own health. However, midwife is required to integrate cultural safety into her midwifery practice; be flexible, sensitive and understanding (Pairman, S., Pincombe, J., Thorogood, C & Tracy, S. 2015, p. 728 & p. 745). The New Zealand College of Midwives defines cultural safety as the effective care of women from other cultures by midwives who have undertaken a process of reflection on their own cultural identity and recognise the impact of the midwives’ culture on their own practice. Unsafe cultural practice is any action that diminishes, demeans or disempowers the cultural identity and wellbeing of an individual (2008, p. 48). Hence, a routine assessment such as on lochia requires the development of partnership, coupled with continued care and cultural safety. In addition, a sound knowledge on the anatomy and physiology and assessment skills of lochia will definitely make the partnership between the midwife and her woman a reciprocal one.

Marketisation is a worldwide trend across the field of social welfare, such as education (Ntshoe, 2004; Lowrie and Hemsley-Brown, 2011), health care (Collyer and White, 2011), voluntary/charity organisations (Cunningham, et al., 2013; Mckay, et al., 2015), and elder care and childcare (Brennan, et al., 2012). As Drakeford (2007) proposed, the marketisation of welfare has various forms, including ownership transforming from the state to market agencies or individuals, purchasing services from private/independent providers instead of being directly provided by the state, and relocating responsibilities from the state to individuals. Under the trend of global marketisation, elder care is increasingly shaped by the market. This study defines the term of ‘marketisation of care for older people’ as applying ‘markets’, ‘market principles’ (Daly and Lewis, 2000) and ‘market mechanism’ (Brennan et al., 2012; Williams and Brennan, 2012) in the field of care for older people. The ‘marketisation of care’ is a considerably complicated and multi-faceted trend, which involves shifts of the balance of mixed economy of care and increasing faith for applying market principles in the public sector (Daly and Lewis, 2000).

During these times these subjects may take different forms in either mandating that woman stay at home while doing carework or even questioning the different roles and responsibilities of women in public life. Kittay puts it best when she says “When we acknowledge not only our global interdependence, but the inevitable dependencies of our species being, we bring to light our human commonalities” (464) and “Exploring the role of care and dependency in a politics of difference reveals that we ought not to speak of the crisis of care or the crisis of longterm care but of the crisis of care” (464). Care needs to work both ways. Care needs to ensure that those giving the care is taken care of but also the carer is taken care of. Without the carer then there would be no one to give the

). Walker and Warren (1996) pointed out, that the continued failure to provide sufficient and adequate services means that some vulnerable older adults and their family undertaking a caring role are put under dyer strains which, in turn, poses a threat to the viability of their caring relationships. It also means that the home care services cannot realise their full potential in the prevention of dependency but instead are forced to act in a reactive mode (Walker and Warren, 1996).