Models of Care
Social Welfare Corporations' Effect on the Aging Community in Japan: Three Examples of Mutualism in the Aging Community
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nobuko Nishina
Social welfare corporations (SWCs) are one of the main actors for providing welfare services in Japan. Not only do they provide formal services, nowadays they are expected to contribute to informal social services as well. Some of the corporations expand their work into community organizing in order to involve local people in the provision of their own services. Three examples will be shared in this paper. First, Riddell Wright Home Social Welfare Corporation provides a community gathering place and a system whereby people donate their work to the community. Second, Ogunimach-shyakaifukushi-kyougikai Social Welfare Corporation has a department that mainly provides job training and housing services for people who are challenged. For example, they bought a tofu shop from an elderly couple that was retiring and turned it into a job training program. They asked local farmers to grow special soybeans for making tofu. As a result, local farmers, who actually proved to be better at growing the beans, earned extra income. In addition, they taught members affiliated with the job training program how to grow the beans. Third, the Niji no Kai Social Welfare Corporation in Shiga prefecture started providing a mini market on wheels. As the community grows older, they consume less. The mountainous areas of the community suffer from a lack of shops for their daily food needs. The paper discusses the importance of the role of SWCs in an aging society, especially their use of community organizing as one method for strengthening community involvement.
Toward an Age-friendly Built Environment: A Case Study of Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nadhirah binti Nordin
Malaysia is one of the developing countries which is currently experiencing a slow progressive trend of aging and will become an ageing nation by the year 2040 based on current forecasts. A major shift in various parts of development are needed to encounter the future issues of an ageing nation. Malaysia is currently experiencing major issues concerning good healthcare facilities among its population. Future policies and directions to guide Malaysia into an age-friendly built environment are much needed from higher authorities and policymakers. At current, Malaysia’s policy on aging only deals with providing better accessible healthcare and facilities for society, overlooking other major aspects that can partly facilitate and guide an aging nation in the future. The built environment aspects, such as the neighbourhood that we live in, play a vital role in maintaining a healthy and active society. Past research has proven that walkable neighbourhoods which have good accessibility lead to a healthy lifestyle, by which this area of knowledge has been understudied in Malaysia. Hence, this paper makes a case study on a fast-developing city in Malaysia, Johor Bahru. The case study covers the basic needs and barriers of the current environment among the elderly population and proposes an age-friendly neighbourhood design which can further initiate the policy-making process for Johor Bahru and tackle policy making at the national level for Malaysia in the future.
Direct Funding Home Care Programs: Findings from a Canadian Inventory
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christine Kelly, Aliya Jamal
Directly-funded home care is a policy mechanism designed to relieve the strain on home care. This model is expanding throughout Canada and the developed world. Direct funding (DF) programs provide individuals or families with cash to arrange their own home care services. DF often includes hiring and managing workers directly. In this paper, we share findings of a comprehensive inventory of Canadian DF programs, gathered through qualitative interviews and questionnaires conducted with program administrators. There are twenty-one DF programs in Canada, which include caregiver respite programs, individualized funding for people with cognitive disabilities, and home-care programs for older people and people with disabilities. We describe the programs and introduce two themes that emerged across the country. The first theme considers the lack of information on the workers employed through DF home care. Care workers in a variety of settings are an under-documented population. This issue is exacerbated by the informal hiring practices and low-entry requirements of DF, paradoxically two of the programmatic features lauded by clients. In addition, we consider the increasing role of agency care providers within DF schemes (as opposed to direct hire), considering the ways that these organizations can conflict with some of the DF policy aims. In doing so, we demonstrate the diversity, and at times, inequity, in available DF options in Canada.
