Caring for the elderly: The partnership issue

Abstract

The promotion of a partnership set up to assure care for dependent elderly people has become a popular topic amongst health care and social services planners. This paper reviews what seems to be Québec main assumptions concerning the demands created by the demographic explosion of elderly people, limited financial resources, and the negative impact of institutionalisation. The state's five guidelines for the establishment of sensible health care services for dependent elderly people are also discussed. They include redefining the '65 years or over' criterion that labels someone in this age group as 'a person needing extra care services'; cutting and re-allocating state expenditures; soliciting all eventual partners outside the formal health care network; reformulating the roles and duties of health care professionals, stressing the efficiency of their intervention; and re-asserting the value of an elderly person's family and community networks. An interpretation of the meaning of partnership, based on information in government documents, as well as the conditions that could hinder its development are also discussed. Finally, an overview is provided of the potential effects of a partnership on the target group and the community. This analysis is based on Québec's situation although many of the angles and dilemmas could be applied to other industrialised countries.elderly person informal caregiving health care policy partnership