The Essence of Accommodating Older Adults into the Social Care Sector in Malaysia

Population ageing puts pressure on the workforce and increase the demands for aged workforce.The demographic shifts have made the issue of healthier workers,especially those of advanced age and physically related job scopes,a fundamental aspect to employing older workers.Hence,this study aimed to explore the best practices to employ older adults into the social care sector.The social care sector was chosen in view of the nature of job and declining demand among younger workers.A qualitative study was conducted involving series of focus group discussions(FGD)with social care workers of long-term care centers in the peninsular Malaysia.Data was collected using a validated and pre-tested semi-structured interview protocol.Each focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were lasted between 45 min to 1 h.A total of 57 workers were consented for the study which was divided into young and old workers based on the mean age of 41.43[SD±9.97]years old.The content of the interviews was transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was performed to inductively identify the coding and themes within the data related to the challenges employing older workers into the social care sector.Three categories of coding were identified(individual,environmental and management factors),leading to the identification of two important themes which are healthy workplace and work autonomy.The findings indicate the needs for work culture transformations to cultivate healthy working environment and freedom of speech particularly among the older workers.

Research on social medical insurance of migrant workers --A case of Suqian city in Jiangsu province

City migrant workers, as one part of the city＇s development, economic development and other aspects of urban to make a great contribution, but the delay with the local residents do not enjoy the same level of medical care treatment is always blocked in outside the city＇s health care system, have less relevant departments, there is no practical system introduced regulations and policies, these things tell us to pay attention to the people, and the introduction of appropriate medical insurance of migrant workers possibly things, and timely medical security system of such groups and the local people medical protection for long support. Make medical insurance system can cities try it＇s best to help foreign workers Medicare, Medicare for the development of China has made a modest contribution.

Identifying Where the Values Come from IT-Innovations in Health and Social Care

Studies aimed to capture the effects of IT-innovations in health and social care have shown that there is a gap between expected and factual outcomes. Many decision makers feel the need to articulate an ideal end-state for their organiza-tions. Striking the balance between novelty and believability of such an ideal end-state is often tricky and they become neither satisfied with the ideal not the visioning. In this study, we explore the contribution of IT-innovations to health and social care. The results showed that coherence between context and IT-innovation is important to capture effects and outcomes. Being coherent rather than visionary contributes to identify where you are, as an organization, and to capture effects and outcomes that “make sense” in the context in question. The paper makes an exposition from the model building, algorithm design to performance analysis and contributes to the academic prosperity in Intelligent In-formation Management The knowledge generated is expected to provide input when identifying goals that IT-investments are supposed to achieve.

Protection of Maternity in Greece and the E.U.——A Comparison Analysis

Pregnancy and motherhood are two situations which impose on the special regulation of the working conditions in order to secure the protection of the physical and psychological health of woman. Furthermore, the disproportion between woman＇s and man＇s work and the mentality that labour and the raising of child is a burden that only woman has to bear, needs to be eliminated. This burden is softened by the protection provided to pregnant women by the state. This way, a great effort is made to promote the equality in working relations between men and women. This kind of protection is realized through the National Health and Social Care by giving economical provisions and through legislative regulations in order to harmonize work and parental role. In this study, regulations and services along with their health care personnel, referring to motherhood＇s protection in Greece, are presented and related data concerning other EU countries are given. Until now, the existing system of maternity of the ＂Social State＂ has not reached yet the desired goal.

Protection of Childhood in Greece

The early childhood care is important not only for individual Greek children and families but also for Greek society at large. Furthermore, it needs to be secured that the burden of labour and the raising of child is not only a woman＇s duty. There is a broad recognition that a strategy for developing early childhood services and childcare to support mother＇s labour force participation is in the public interest and should be the primary scope of the national health and social care policy. The inadequate organization of the child welfare system has adverse effects on the well-being, and function of the family. Only the improvement of the expected protection can lead to social politics that will give a chance to mother and child to live in conditions fitting human value and dignity. Herein, we presented the regulations and services along with health care professionals that refer to the protection of child in Greece.

The Hermeneutic Circle Helps to Accumulate Knowledge and Understanding： An Empirical Example of Public Health Nurses＇ Experiences of Supporting Multiple-birth Families

In phenomenological research, the reduction is a complex reflective attentiveness required for phenomenological understanding. A literature review revealed that little research has been done on health care professionals working with multiple-birth families. Van Manen＇s method has been variously used in nursing science. The aim of this article is to describe the hermeneutic circle and the method of reduction, providing an empirical example of the experiences of public health nurses working with multiple-birth families. The data consisted of open interviews （n = 38） with three participant groups--parents of twins, nurses, and family care workers--written output from them and the researcher＇s notes. The phenomena of the lifeworld of multiple-birth families as described by nurses can be expressed as： ＂recognizing the strain＂, ＂targeting special needs＂, and ＂lightening the load of daily life＂. Reduction enables in-depth phenomenological hermeneutic research, helping to see the research stages both as parts and as a whole and the hermeneutic circle that accumulates understanding. Social and health care professionals need to listen more to parents＇ voices to better understand the needs and situation of multiple-birth families. More education and training is needed to empower parents of twins. This article can stimulate discussion on phenomenology, hermeneutic research and reduction.

Age-Friendly Communities: Creating a Conducive Environment for the Elderly in India

India is one of the nations in the world where the population is undergoing anomalous demographic changes.The increase in longevity and decrease fertility lead to the boom of older people aged 60 and above both in relative and absolute terms.Due to the rise in number,it creates pressure not only on the family but the responsibility shifts to the government also.This issue becomes a significant social problem not only in India but across the globe.The government had taken action by creating policies and programs to provide services to them.Still,the majority of the elderly population is lacking behind in these areas like health facilities,infrastructure,living arrangements suffering from isolation,loneliness,abuse,crime.Nowadays,smart city initiatives are taken by the government across the country but still in process.To involve and facilitate more cities for“age-friendly”,the World Health Organization develop the Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide and a manual“Checklist of Essential Features of Age-Friendly Cities”.Cooperating with 35 urban communities from developed and developing nations,the WHO oversees eight highlights for age-accommodating urban areas in the space of urban life.This paper had an objective to study and understand exiting literature on age-friendly communities in developed and developing countries and draw attention to the need to create age-friendly cities in India.The realization of the needs and demands of older people,the Indian government should give attention to promote and implement more age-friendly communities all over the country.This initiative till now taken in 3 states,i.e.,Delhi,Udaipur,and Kolkata-which involved in age-friendly community initiatives collaborated with WHO.In this era of a rapid aging sphere,the communities have to enhance in such a manner where the older population can meet their needs quickly without any conflicts and problem.To conclude,the government and policymaker should emphasize the policies into practices to build age-friendly communities across the country and make better living conditions for“allages”.For timely action and productive recommendation,it is an urgent need on the part of the government,policymakers,researchers,social workers to develop and enhance the community’s facilities,which can gain confidence and wellbeing of the elderly in India.

Expanding Older Adults’ Care Choices Utilizing the Proceeds of Reciprocated Volunteerism: Capitalizing on Ghana’s Digitalization Artillery

Ghana has been a collectivistic society. However, due to social change, this value is fast being replaced by individualistic tendencies with implications for age-oriented care provision and receipt. This paper investigates the participation in the socially productive strategy of using ageing-oriented volunteerism to leverage the receipt of care in later life utilizing a quantitative dataset. The results show that volunteering may be undertaken with old age in sight. This needs to take place under circumstances of good communication skills among others. The accumulated time needs to be recorded in a time bank and redeemed with a time bank card in later life. Two-dimensional leveraging points pertain in this context: first, leveraging volunteerism for short or long-term care in the nearest future;second, technological innovation’s facilitation of the same. Volunteerism in this context has the attribute of low levels of depression, with implications for quality of life. These are discussed in the light of the social care pillar of ageing social policy. The paper argues that adopting volunteerism with reciprocation as the ultimate goal constitutes a kickback model for care receipt in later life. It served as a choice of care in later life which is a shock absorber to inadequate formal support infrastructure and individualistic social tendencies in Ghana. It is reminiscent of resistance to the shrinkage of older persons’ social integration in their social world.

Participatory approach to design social accountability interventions to improve maternal health services:a case study from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background:Social accountability(SA)comprises a set of mechanisms aiming to,on the one hand,enable users to raise their concerns about the health services provided to them(voice),and to hold health providers(HPs)accountable for actions and decisions related to the health service provision.On the other hand,they aim to facilitate HPs to take into account users’needs and expectations in providing care.This article describes the development of a SA intervention that aims to improve health services responsiveness in two health zones in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Methods:Beneficiaries including men,women,community health workers(CHWs),representatives of the health sector and local authorities were purposively selected and involved in an advisory process using the Dialogue Model in the two health zones:(1)Eight focus group discussions(FGDs)were organized separately during consultation aimed at sharing and discussing results from the situation analysis,and collecting suggestions for improvement,(2)Representatives of participants in previous FGDs were involved in dialogue meetings for prioritizing and integrating suggestions from FGDs,and(3)the integrated suggestions were discussed by research partners and set as intervention components.All the processes were audio-taped,transcribed and analysed using inductive content analysis.Results:Overall there were 121 participants involved in the process,51 were female.They provided 48 suggestions.Their suggestions were integrated into six intervention components during dialogue meetings:(1)use CHWs and a health committee for collecting and transmitting community concerns about health services,(2)build the capacity of the community in terms of knowledge and information,(3)involve community leaders through dialogue meetings,(4)improve the attitude of HPs towards voice and the management of voice at health facility level,(5)involve the health service supervisors in community participation and;(6)use other existing interventions.These components were then articulated into three intervention components during programming to:create a formal voice system,introduce dialogue meetings improving enforceability and answerability,and enhance the health providers’responsiveness.Conclusions:The use of the Dialogue Model,a participatory process,allowed beneficiaries to be involved with other community stakeholders having different perspectives and types of knowledge in an advisory process and to articulate their suggestions on a combination of SA intervention components,specific for the two health zones contexts.

Childcare Policy in China:Review,Reflection and Reconstruction

In recent years,China’s“childcare crisis”has worsened,affecting children,women,families and even society as a whole in multiple ways.A review of the childcare policy since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 shows that it has shifted from construction to destruction and thence to partial reconstruction,entering a crucial reconstruction stage after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.To cope effectively with the childcare crisis that has emerged from the changes in population structure and population policies,socioeconomic transformation,family changes,etc.,we need to gain a renewed understanding of the important role of childcare policy in socioeconomic development and in the people’s sense of betterment,in order to build an integrated childcare system with universally accessible benefits in which the state,the market,society and families participate.