Types of Care

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Types of Care
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Why Discuss Care?

• Health and health care were largely the
  responsibility of the family unit prior to the
  biomedical model.
• Institutional care was reserved for those with
  misfortune
• Now this emphasis on family is being reiterated
  because of the aging crisis and health care
  crisis in our country.

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What is the Biomedical Focus?

• Focuses solely on the individuals physiological
  state and the presence or absence of symptoms of
  sickness.
• Four primary assumptions
• 1. Disease, diagnosis, and treatment are all
  objective.
• 2. Only medical professionals are capable of
  defining health and illness.
• 3. Should be defined solely in terms of
  physiological malfunctioning
• 4. Health is defined as merely the absence of
  disease.

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Definitions

• Self-Care (text) any form of caring behaviour
  that we ourselves initiate.
• ADLs and IADLs
• Describes a broad range of behaviours
• Practices occur within a social network and are
  influenced by family.
• 5 out of 6 persons aged 55 and over experience at
  least one illness symptom and rely on self-care.

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The Self-Help Movement

• Promoting personal involvement and responsibility
  in health
• Personal awareness of health has grown because
• 1. Varying approaches to health
• 2. Interest in potential savings for health care
• 3. Personal patterns of lifestyle
• 4. Encouragement from the womens movement

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Self-Help Groups

• Tremendous amount of growth in the number of
  self-help groups.
• These groups have been organized around every
  possible disease, addiction, and disability.
• They are extremely useful and effective.

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Health Behaviour

• In terms of type of care, we are really
  discussing health behaviour.
• The health belief model
• Development of health belief model because of the
  inability of individuals to cease their harmful
  behaviours.
• Individuals have differing opinions on their
  susceptibility to certain diseases-eg. AIDS/HIVs

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Health Belief Model cont...

• Individuals will take preventative health action
  if
• 1. The individual feels susceptible or
  vulnerable.
• 2. Serious consequences
• 3. Taking preventative action will reduce
  susceptibility.
• Individuals may still fail to take precautions
• A study of the anxiety in contracting a sexually
  transmitted disease.

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What determines self-care?

• Health is linked to social status and
  inequalities.
• A societys political, socio-cultural and
  socio-economic factors are most important
• Inequalities in Canada vs. Japan and the US
• Japans relative equity
• US difference between the richest and poorest is
  growing.

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Caregiving

• Definition (text) assisting another person when
  his or her health fails and that person is unable
  to continue his or her daily life without
  assistance. Caregiving is a special type of
  social interaction and social support.
• Informal Care assistance provided to an
  individual who cannot carry out those activities
  for themselves that is, the assistance is
  required and it is primarily unpaid.

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Informal Care cont...

• Four models available in describing the ways
  people use informal supports
• 1. Task-specificity model
• 2. Hierarchical compensatory model
• 3. Functional specificity of relationships model
• 4. Convoy model of support

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Other sources

• Friends
• Siblings

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Children-source of Informal support/care

• Adult children provide much of the support needed
  by their parents.
• Reciprocity in caregiving relationships
• The developmental stake
• Intergenerational interaction has grown in
  intensity and complexity.

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Other factors

• Food security
• Poverty
• Employment
• Unemployment
• Education/literacy
• Housing
• neighbourhood

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Formal support

• Definition professional caregivers such as
  doctors, nurses, and social workers as well as
  paid homemaker and health care services.
• Laws in the 1920s and 1930s- familys
  responsibility.

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Caregiver health

• The stress and amounting dependency can result in
  many dysfunctions of both formal and informal
  support
• Caregiver burnout
• Caregiver breakdown
• Elder abuse/ child abuse
• Eg. Health of caregivers for children with
  disabilities.