Caring for Elders
Anticipatory Loss for Aging Parents: Does Socioeconomic Status Matter?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Connie Kartoz, Munira Wells, Paige Hammell
Anticipation of the eventual loss of aging, yet healthy parents consists of feelings of gratitude, sadness, and worry. This type of loss is distinct from the anticipatory grief experienced when the death of a parent is approaching. The purpose of this study is to explore the conceptual definition of parent anticipatory loss, its measurement, and correlates with sociodemographic characteristics such as race and ethnicity. The Parent Anticipatory Loss Scale (PALS) contains items such as “I feel lucky that my parents are as healthy as they are”, rated on an 8- point Likert scale. Expert content validity was established with a six-member panel. After IRB approval, a sample (N= 315) of non-caregiving, mostly Caucasian (n = 182, 57.6%) men (n=202, 63.9%), average age of 36.4 (SD 10.2), was obtained through the crowdsourcing platform, Mechanical Turk. Items with an inter-item correlation < 0.3 and > 0.8 were eliminated resulting in a 19 item scale (α = 0.93). Anticipatory loss for the aging parent had small correlations with time spent with parent (r =0.27; p < .001), and emotional and functional supports provided (r = 0.22, p < .001) and received (r = 0.2, p < .001). Inter-item correlations, group difference testing multiple regression were all non-significant for age, income, education level and racial identity, suggesting that anticipatory loss may transcend national identities. Future research is recommended to replicate these findings and explore relationships between anticipatory loss and health outcomes such as caregiving preparedness, health disparities, and quality of life in aging families.
Support for the Elderly with Severe Care Needs: A Study on the Arrangement of Elderly Housing with Care Services in Japan
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hiroko Mizumura
Japanese society is facing a super aged society. Those aged over 65+ was recorded as 27.4% in 2017, consequently Japan is facing a serious shortage of housing for the elderly, even though the number of aged single and couple households without informal care has been dramatically increasing. Elderly housings with care service (EHwC) in Japan have provided since 2011 to compensate for the shortage of housing for the elderly. After then the supply quantity of this housing has increased rapidly but covered the broad range of qualities. At first the main targets of residents were the elderly with able bodies, but the large proportion of residents are the elderly who are in the waiting lists of nursing home. To grasp the current situations and points at issue, I administered questionnaire to all EHwC in Tokyo and Osaka, the two biggest country councils in Japan in 2017. We distributed a total of 817 questionnaires to all housing and received back 172, 21.0% being the valid response rate. The following points became clear. 1) 70% of the housing has experienced the treatment of terminal care and deathwatch. 2) 60% of the housing has responded that they could accept the residents suffering from dementia, however some of them showed difficulties. In 2018, I conducted a case study of twenty housing facilities about the treatment of the elderly suffering from dementia. I discuss the ways those facilities try to accept and support dementia residents.
Competencies and Challenges in Working with Older Adults: Insights and Recommendations from Gerontological Social Workers in Alberta, Canada
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hongmei Tong, Anna Azulai, Kathaleen Quinn, Jennifer Hewson, Christine A. Walsh, Paula Cornell
Older adults (65+ years) are the fastest growing population group in Canada, projected to reach 25% of the population by 2030. Given this dramatic demographic shift, there is a critical need for trained practitioners from disciplines such as social work. In spite of this, there is scant research on gerontological social workers in Canada. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the perspectives of social workers about competencies, challenges, and recommendations for education and training to enhance practice with older adults.This mixed methods study includes an online survey sent to all registered social workers in Alberta, Canada through the Alberta College of Social Workers, the regulatory body of the social work profession in Alberta. Data collection also includes individual semi-structured interviews and a World Café with social workers at a symposium at MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta. Quantitative data is statistically analysed using IBM SPSS software. Qualitative data is analyzed for themes using a constant comparison approach. This study presents findings from the online survey (N=57), individual semi-structured interviews (N=12), and the Word Café (N=40).The findings provide both a broad scope and an in-depth understanding of the competencies, challenges, and recommendations from a social work lens for practicing with older adults. The findings of the study shed light on the current and future needs of gerontological social work in Alberta which help to inform the development of university courses and certificates as well as professional development opportunities.
Facing the Aphasia Condition: Family Structure, Relationships, and Responsibilities of Social Networks
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rosana Novaes Pinto
The main objective of this proposal is to discuss the relevance and impact of social networks in which aphasic subjects are immersed, mainly regarding family members, caretakers, and health systems. Aphasia is the linguistic condition that frequently follows a neurological episode (an ictus, a tumor, a traumatic injury, and so on). Besides medical and psychological assistance, we argue that aphasics must be faced with empathy in order to be understood and to express their subjectivity. Despite their condition, they must be recognized as competent individuals who have something to say. Tt is imperative for the success of their rehabilitation process to encounter attentive and predisposed interlocutors who will assist them in developing adaptive strategies. In such social approach to understanding aphasia, treatment is comprehended as a collaborative and conversational process of people, as it “should not be a process of just language and communication repair, but of facilitating purpose and meaning in life and strengthening ties with others in those natural life contexts that matter the most” (Lyon, 1999, p. 689). In the context of this reflection, I present the ethical and theoretical guidelines of the work developed by the research group I lead (GELEP – Study Group of Language in Aging and in Pathologies) at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), São Paulo, Brazil. CCA (Center for People with Aphasia) has been the locus for our research in the field of Neurolinguistics for more than thirty years and also an institutional space to develop community extension programs.
