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A SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA E O INVERNO DEMOGRÁFICO: CINCO ESTRATÉGIAS DE POLÍTICA SOCIAL
Abstract and Figures
O envelhecimento da população coloca vários desafios quer às
famílias, quer à sociedade, muitos dos quais são atenuáveis com uma Política
Social adequada. Neste policy brief organizamos a análise dessas intervenções
considerando cinco estratégias: 1) investir na prevenção tanto da doença como
da dependência, 2) adequar os cuidados integrados de longa duração e no fim da
vida; 3) adaptar as condições de trabalho e dar aos mais velhos a oportunidade
de participarem, 4) reduzir o idadismo, melhorando a governança e, por fim,
5) harmonizar todos os espaços frequentados pelos mais velhos, com particular
destaque para a habitação.
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This chapter is about the concept governance as a continuous discourse in public administration.
Under the Portuguese Constitution, housing is recognized as a social right. In this context, homeownership took the form of a cornerstone of housing policy, becoming a central element of Portuguese culture. However, as in other Southern European countries, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 had a significant impact on the housing market, albeit to a smaller extent in Portugal, and seemingly inverted perspectives and approaches to homeownership. The entry of the Troika in Portugal came with a set of changes to housing policy in 2011, the most relevant of which was the New Urban Lease Act and its 2012 amendments that focused on fostering the rental market. To better understand the transformation in the housing sector throughout this period, research here presented made use of a qualitative methodology
– content analysis – supported by quantitative data, to critically analyse legislation
produced during this period with reference to three key areas: housing policy, the
rental market and homeownership. This analysis provides evidence that although
housing policy in Portugal has indeed shifted quite significantly, with a dwindling
of public support for homeownership and outright promotion of the rental market,
there has been no significant evidence of a decline in the homeownership trend.
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Ageism has been shown to have a negative impact on older people’s health and wellbeing. Though multiple scales are currently being used to measure this increasingly important issue, syntheses of the psychometric properties of these scales are unavailable. This means that existing estimates of ageism prevalence may not be accurate. We conducted a systematic review aimed at identifying available ageism scales and evaluating their scope and psychometric properties. A comprehensive search strategy was used across fourteen different databases, including PubMed and CINAHL. Independent reviewers extracted data and appraised risk of bias following the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) guidelines. Of the 29,664 records identified, 106 studies, assessing 11 explicit scales of ageism, were eligible for inclusion. Only one scale, the ‘Expectations Regarding Aging’ met minimum requirements for psychometric validation (i.e., adequate content validity, structural validity and internal consistency). Still, this scale only assesses the ‘stereotype’ dimension of ageism, thus failing to evaluate the other two ageism dimensions (prejudice and discrimination). This paper highlights the need to develop and validate a scale that accounts for the multidimensional nature of ageism. Having a scale that can accurately measure ageism prevalence is key in a time of increasing and rapid population ageing, where the magnitude of this phenomenon may be increasing.
In this article we will discuss WHAT is Lifelong learning, how it is different from formal learning in an academic set up; also find out advantages of LLL for senior citizens and why we should be interested in it at all in the first place. Then we will explore various sources – resources – and online platforms available for LLL; Only site names will be given – we won’t go into details of each resource. Therafter the Concept of U3A, its origin and history in India , U3A groups etc will be seen in the context of LLL. Just to inspire and motivate you, examples of a few lifelong learners and what they have done will be mentioned. If you are motivated enough to go ahead and do something tangible to promote LLL what is it that any of us can do? This question is answered in a brief list. Finally it is emphasized that we are interested in the elderly, retired people, pensioners or simple put 60+ age group only. We are not concerned with LLL for students, Teachers, Workers, Women or others.
Growing long-term care (LTC) needs represent a major challenge for our aging societies. Understanding how utilization patterns of different types of care are influenced by LTC policies or changes in the population composition such as age patterns or health can provide helpful insight on how to adequately prepare for this situation. To this aim, this paper explores how individuals choose between different forms of LTC. We exploit variation between countries as well as between individuals within countries using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Using nonlinear decomposition techniques, we break down the difference in utilization rates between countries into differences based on observed sociodemographic and need-related characteristics and differences in the impacts of these characteristics, which allows us to identify the drivers behind differences in the formal-informal care mix. Our results show that a substantial fraction of the observed country differences can be explained by differences in impacts. We argue that this is a result of the different incentives provided by the different LTC systems.
This article makes the case for a radical new strategy on ageing which focuses on the whole life course with the intention of preventing many of the chronic conditions associated with old age. The case is built on recent research evidence and the life-course concept of ‘active ageing’ is used to encapsulate the practical measures required. Combining biological and social science insights it is argued that, while ageing is inevitable, it is also plastic. This means that it not only manifests itself in different ways but also that it can be modified by mitigating the various risk factors that drive it. Such action would have considerable potential to reduce the personal costs of chronic conditions such as strokes and those falling on family carers but, also, to cut the associated health and social care expenditures. The question of why such apparently beneficial policy action is not being taken is discussed and a range of barriers are identified. One of these appears to be the UK's extreme brand of neo-liberalism, which militates against the collective approach necessary to implement a social policy for active ageing. Although the case is made with primary reference to UK policy and practice, the call for action to prevent chronic conditions has global relevance.
The objective is to understand what really drives prescription expenditure at the end of life in order to inform future expenditure projections and service planning. To achieve this objective an empirical analysis of public medication expenditure on the older population (individuals ≥ 70 years of age) in Ireland (n = 231,780) was undertaken. A two part model is used to analysis the individual effects of age, proximity to death (PTD) and morbidity using individual patient-level data from administrative pharmacy records for 2006–2009 covering the population of community medication users. Decedents (n = 14,084) consistently use more medications and incur larger expenditures than similar survivors, especially in the last 6 months of life. The data show a positive and statistically significant impact of PTD on prescribing expenditures with minimal effect for age alone even accounting for patient morbidities. Nevertheless improved measures of morbidity are required to fully test the hypothesis that age and PTD are proxies for morbidity. The evidence presented refutes age as a driver of prescription expenditure and highlights the importance of accounting for mortality in future expenditure projections.
The home environment is pivotal in the lives of older people, intimately intertwined with one's sense of self and belonging. Aging in place (AIP), continuing to live in the same or familiar place or community for as long as possible not only fulfills a neoliberal and economic imperative but aligns with the wishes of a majority of older Canadians, who prefer to age in place. Despite policies' contributions to differing experiences of aging, the potential bearing of the narratives embedded within AIP or age-friendly policies remains unexamined.
Within an institutional ethnography method of inquiry, this study applied Bacchi's “What's the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach to structure the discovery of governing narratives about familial care work embedded within seven Canadian aging in place policies at the municipal, provincial, and federal level. I analyzed these policies for their role in coordinating the experiences of caring for an older adult who is aging in place in London, Canada's first age-friendly city. Of particular interest for this study is uncovering whether these texts recognize the work, and in particular the information work, of providing care to an older adult who is AIP.
The policies' overall focus on self-reliance, independence, and resourcefulness frames aging in place as a process that can and should be responsibly managed. Information is introduced as a helpful tool to secure and preserve older adults' independence and usefulness to their community. The policies' problematizations frame successful aging in place as governed through a logic of choice, where a complex problem is framed as a matter of choice. Ultimately, however, while the policies offer a number of different “choices” for older adults to AIP, a critical unpacking of the problematizations reveals the choice to AIP to be illusory. There is only one option presented in the policies and that is to AIP.
The demographic transition is the change from a high‐mortality, high‐fertility population to one with low mortality and low fertility, which tends to accompany industrialization. Evolutionary anthropologists are particularly interested in studying the demographic transition because low fertility levels, as experienced around the world today, appear inconsistent with the expectation of fitness maximization and researchers seek to understand the factors influencing people's fertility behavior. The demographic transition began in Western Europe and has spread to the entire world. While demographic transition theory has the power to explain mortality and fertility change, it is as yet unable to predict the timing or duration of transition.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) active aging framework recognizes that
age barriers and ageism need to be removed in order to increase potential for active
aging. However, there has been little empirical analysis of ways in which ageism
and attitudes toward age impact on active aging. This article sets out the Risks of
Ageism Model (RAM) to show how ageism and attitudes toward age can impact
the six proposed determinants of active aging via three pathways; (1) stereotype
embodiment, the process through which stereotypes are internalized and become
self-relevant, (2) stereotype threat, the perceived risk of conforming to negative
stereotypes about one’s group, and (3) age discrimination, unfair treatment based
on age. Active aging policies are likely to be more successful if they attend to these
three pathways when challenging ageism and negative attitudes toward age.