Framework of Care Poverty

Abstract

This chapter outlines a framework around the concept of care poverty. This framework is based on three domains of care poverty and two measurement approaches. The three domains are personal care poverty, practical care poverty, and socio-emotional care poverty. Personal care poverty means inadequate support for personal care needs like bathing and toileting. Practical care poverty stands for a lack of help in meeting practical care needs like cleaning, shopping, and transportation. Socio-emotional care poverty is deprivation of support for emotional and social needs. Concerning measurement approaches, care poverty is measured mainly in two ways. The situation where an older person has care needs but does not receive any formal or informal support is called as absolute care poverty. Alternatively, if an older person with care needs self-reports (or is reported by proxy respondents) not to receive sufficient support, the situation is called relative care poverty, irrespective of whether the person receives informal or formal care or not. When combined, the three domains and the two measurement approaches produce six different categories of care poverty.