Over the last 20 years, increased public and political awareness has developed alongside research, policy and professional developments to advance our understanding of the abuse of older people in families, communities, hospitals and institutional settings. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) argued that elder abuse was a distinct social problem, defining abuse as ‘a single, repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which caused harm or distress to an older person’ ( WHO, 2002
51 FOUR Financial elder abuse Mary Gilhooly, Deborah Kinnear, Miranda Davies, Kenneth Gilhooly and Priscilla Harries Introduction A true story The topic of financial elder abuse is rather closer to home than I might have wished. During this research project, my 94-year-old mother, and then subsequently my 95-year-old stepfather, fell for a financial scam. The scam consisted of a letter arriving in the post telling my mother that she had won US$800,000 in the Publishers Clearing House (PCH) sweepstakes. All that mother had to do was pay the taxes of US$800
125 TEN Paradoxical constructions in Danish elder care Anne Liveng Introduction Transformations are taking place in Danish elder care that have consequences for both older citizens and care workers. These transformations are connected to economic concerns and to scientifically and ideologically based changes in how older people are perceived, and they are shaping the support offered to older people by the welfare state. This chapter focuses on the consequences of different philosophical conceptualisations of human beings; specifically, on the ways in
Introduction Feminist research has long been at the forefront of examining violence in women’s lives ( Stanko, 1990 ). However, this largely focused on younger women. Consequently, the experiences of older women have been somewhat ignored ( Bows, 2019 ), and there has been scant regard afforded to older male victims ( Melchiorre et al, 2016 ). As a result, there is a dearth of research exploring abuse against elders (EA). Further, despite recent calls for researchers to consider adopting an intersectional lens when exploring EA ( Bows, 2018 ), there is an
171 ELEVEN Sexual and gender diversity, ageing and elder care in South Africa: voices and realities Finn Reygan and Jamil Khan There is an almost complete lack of literature on the needs of – and care services for – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) elders in South Africa and across the African continent. As a result, with the exception of Henderson and Almack (2016), we present here some of the first writings on this topic in South Africa informed by the literature base that exists in relation to our knowledge of elder populations
Introduction This chapter argues that Indigenous elders ‘in’ so-called ‘Canada’ have much to teach us about sexuality (and by extension relationality and kinship ethics) through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice. ‘Elder’ as a term in Indigenous communities refers to someone with immense knowledge and trusted insight; someone with a plethora of lived experiences and valuable understandings. As a trusted source of knowledge, elders are often who we (as Indigenous peoples) turn to for our (hi)stories ( Adese, 2014 ), which can include multi
125 FIVE Beyond transport: understanding the role of mobilities in connecting rural elders in civic society Graham Parkhurst, Kathleen Galvin, Charles Musselwhite, Judith Phillips, Ian Shergold and Les Todres Introduction This chapter argues for an understanding of connectivity through mobility by elders living in rural areas that goes beyond the traditional transport planning focus on the supply of and demand for transport services. This involves consideration of not just physical movement, but also all the other ways in which older people can be ‘mobile
Introduction The Nordic welfare states are often described as ‘potentially women-friendly’ due to the availability of publicly provided services that support women to combine paid work and caring responsibilities. While such services reduce the extent of informal care tasks and increase the possibilities of labour market participation for large groups of women, paid elder care workers have often been neglected in this narrative of women-friendliness ( Theobald, 2003 ; Dahl, 2004 ). Therefore, care workers face the risk of being invisible in the feminist
89 SIX social inclusion of elders in families Jim Ogg and Sylvie Renaut introduction Social interaction, understood as the engagement in meaningful relations with others, is an important element when considering the concept of social exclusion (Burchardt et al, 2002). The absence or poor quality of contact with significant others – family, friends, work colleagues and community groups – is widely acknowledged as being a key indicator of social exclusion (Hills et al, 2002). Although social interaction takes place in many different settings, family
477 International Journal of Care and Caring • vol 2 • no 4 • 477–98 • © Policy Press 2018 Print ISSN 2397-8821 • Online ISSN 2397-883X • https://doi.org/10.1332/239788218X15321004556767 article In-between-carer: towards a new type of elder care worker? The example of Polish migrant care workers in Germany Patrycja Kniejska, patrycja.kniejska@onet.eu Technische Universitat Dortmund, Germany In Germany, there are currently over 2,860,000 people in need of care. Many are cared for by caregivers from abroad, especially from Poland. The aim of this study is to
