Influence of Contextual and Organisational Factors on Combining Informal and Formal Care for Older People. Slovenian Case

Abstract

The need and availability of informal carers are the most important determinants of care arrangements for older people requiring care. In the present study, we focus on the role of predisposing, enabling factors as well as need in predicting the distribution of care arrangements of social home care users in Slovenia. We not only included individual factors but also community factors and, even more importantly, we addressed the organisational factors which have an effect on formal care usage. In a case study in Slovenia we showed that, apart from need for and availability of an informal care network, which were the strongest predictors of care arrangements (no care, informal care only, formal care only, mixed care) across the activities of daily living, organisational factors such as the temporal availability of social home care and the number of users were the second most important predictors of care arrangements of social home care users. The implications for the conceptual framework for studying care arrangements within national studies as well as in cross-national studies are discussed.

Predictors of Seniors’ Interest in Assistive Applications on Smartphones: Evidence from a Population-Based Survey in Slovenia

“…In this sense, well-off seniors might perceive a smartphone-based assistive app as a ‘sub-optimal’ solution for the fulfilment of their care needs because they have the necessary resources to pay for conventional forms of formal care and/or have access to more advanced ambient-assistive living technology. Conversely, seniors in low SES groups, who are in general more likely to receive formal and informal help [44], could perceive assistive apps as an (more) affordable solution to their care needs, with operational and economic advantages for themselves and their caregivers. With reference to seniors’ occupational status, our findings reinforce the suggestion that assistive apps support those who have to combine their job with informal care provision to significant others and, therefore, suffer from high levels of care burden [45].…”

“…Second, caution is advised in interpreting our results, since they may be related to the specific characteristics of seniors in Slovenia. While Slovenia is an average-performing European Union member state in terms of ICT benchmarks, seniors in Slovenia have some distinctive characteristics that might influence the relationships between the predictors investigated herein (e.g., a strong reliance on family for social support, bigger economic inequalities among seniors, and a higher percentage of retired people among seniors) [44]. Another country-specific characteristic relates to the low penetration of ICT-based AT, with only approximately 500 basic social alarm users in 2017 [42].…”

Differences in care use between men and women: The role of publicly financed and informal care at home

“…For instance, the use of paid care is higher in countries where the responsibility for long-term care lies mainly with the government (Verbeek- Oudijk et al 2014). The availability of social care services (only available in the morning vs. throughout the day) and the total number of users of these services also appears to be a second important predictor of whether formal and informal care is received (Hlebec & Filipovic Hrast, 2016). Comparable results were obtained by Suanet, Broese Van Groenou and Van Tilburg (2012), who show that in countries with fewer home care services, less institutional care and more informal care, older people are more likely to rely on informal care alone.…”

“…The role of the organization of care and policy on care use are also cited as explanations for care usage patterns (Hlebec & Filipovic Hrast, 2016;Suanet, Broese Van Groenou, & Van Tilburg, 2012;Verbeek-Oudijk, Woittiez, Eggink, & Putman, 2014). For instance, the use of paid care is higher in countries where the responsibility for long-term care lies mainly with the government (Verbeek- Oudijk et al 2014).…”

Characteristics and Determinants of Intergenerational Financial Transfers Within Families Using Mixed Care for Elderly People

“…The traditional approach to care in such a familialistic model is that of the family providing care for the elderly as long as possible, and when the need for care becomes too great for the family to meet it, institutional care is chosen. Social home care services, which can represent an important complement to family care, developed slowly after the 1990s and spread; however, their growth stalled with the recession (Hlebec et al, 2014 a, b;Nagode, Lebar, Kovač, & Vidrih, 2016;Hlebec & Filipovič Hrast, 2016). This development is similar to that in the CEE region, e.g., in Croatia, the 1990s were marked by a pluralisation of service providers and the beginnings of the decentralisation and professionalisation of non-institutional forms of care.…”