The primary interest of this article is to understand the organisation of community care in Slovenia. There are several differences at the local level regarding how the formal care of the older people is organised (e.g. the existence of social home care services) and to what extent other services have developed (e.g. institutional care for the older people, intergenerational centres, community nursing, NGOs and interpersonal assistance). We focus on two services, institutional care and social home care, and present the typology of community care in Slovenia. Four clusters were obtained via a hierarchical method (k-means clustering). Clusters of municipalities are comprised of municipalities that have similar characteristics of care for older people, taking into account both institutional care and social home care. The results have shown that municipalities in Slovenia differ dramatically in the availability of care for the older people. Some offer only a poor quality of care (mainly smaller rural municipalities), while others offer higher quality of care and a strong combination of both institutional and social home care.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32715869
Paper concisely summarizes results of the research on the importance of older adults education in community in the light of their better quality of life and according to the concept of ageing in place, which was one of our goals in the project. On one side, we have analysed the offer and possibilities of education in communities (in the institutionalized educational offer as well as in the voluntary and other community organizations, important for older people) in selected municipalities, and on the other side we’ve analysed the experiencing of the meaning, quality and accessibility of the educational offer in community from older people, living in those communities, themselves. We’ve shown generally great unresponsiveness of local organizations to the needs of older people regarding educational and social activities. We’ve found out that older people value educational activities high as regards their quality of life, active involvement in community and therefore a successful ageing in place, but at the same time we’ve established that educational offer for older people is scattered, uncoordinated, not responsive to the needs of older people and often inaccessible. We warn about important differences among rural and urban municipalities in the offer but also in assessment of the offer and possibilities to be involved from older people themselves. Older people in urban environment have much better possibilities for education, which is confirmed by their answers. Results show the necessity of changes regarding this questions.
COBISS.SI-ID: 53572450
This essay discusses the organisation of community care for old people in a Slovenian rural municipality categorised as having ‘low well-being’. The case study is part of a wider research project on community care in Slovenia, which aims to explain the differences and similarities in the organisation and quality of care for older people. The case study is a follow-up to the research of a previously established typology of community care in the country, formed by a cluster analysis. A case in a rural setting was selected to assess this typology directly in the field. The various actors were selected by snow-ball sampling and interviewed about the ‘traditional’ and ‘present’ forms of caring for older people in the community. Contrary to the typology, the fieldwork results show that institutional forms of care at home and at homes for older people exist in the selected municipality. Considering the particular regional context, the results also show communal cooperation among various formal and informal care-practitioners. Finally, care for older people within a family, which is prevalent in the community, obscures the financial inability of the locals to use some of the forms of service available in the residential community.
COBISS.SI-ID: 37740845
Theory. Social homecare is important for older people, as it enables them to remain in their own homes during worsening health, thus relieving the burden on institutional facilities such as homes for the elderly or nursing homes and hospitals. Method. A representative survey of social homecare users was employed to assess determinants of the scope of social homecare in Slovenia. Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate determinants defined by Andersen's behavioral model that affect the scope of social homecare. Results. As expected, need (Functional impairment B = .378, P = 0.000) was the most important explanatory component, followed by availability of informal care network (Lives alone B = -.136, P = 0.000; Has children B = - .142; P = 0.000) and other contextual factors such as total costs of the services (B = -.075; P = 0.003) and temporal availability of services (B=-.075, P=0.012). The model explained 18% of variability in the scope of social homecare. Conclusion. This study showed that data on the individual level, as opposed to data on an aggregated level, show different determinants of social homecare utilization. Moreover, the results showed that social homecare is especially important in two circumstances: when older people have a high level of need and when they do not have access to informal care networks. Contextual factors had a moderate effect on the scope of social homecare, which shows universal access to the latter at the individual level.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32963677
For many years, homes for older people have been the driving force behind the development of care for older people, including community-based care. Homes for older people provide not only the institutional protection in the narrow sense of the word (residential facilities and care), but also assistance to older people in their homes and within a community (the most intense development of day care centres has been seen within the framework of homes for older people, and the same can be argued for home care, social services, sheltered housing and respite care). Our thesis is that social work in homes for older people has the main role in providing such kind of institutional care. Social work in homes for older people plays the key role in changing the paradigm of care within the institution. Therefore we conducted the qualitative research in homes for older people. We interviewed 58 residents and 24 social workers about the presence of life in institution that enable residents influence on their life and good quality of care, autonomy and participation. We find out that social workers in homes for older people play important role in providing good quality of life. The role of social work in homes for older people is in developing the care that is personalised, integrated and community oriented. The foundations for changes in institutional care as well as community care for older people are made. Individualisation of care could lead to the restructuring of large institutions for mass care and development of new work methods, including new methods of social work, as well as new types of community-based care.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4210021