Care for the Elderly in Slovenia: A Combination of Informal and Formal Care

• Published in: Revija za socijalnu politiku Vol. 23; no. 2; p. 159
• Main Authors: Hlebec, Valentina, Srakar, Andrej, Majcen, Boris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Zagreb Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Fakultet Politckih Znanosti 2016
• Subjects: Aging; Caregivers; Community; Community services; Elder care; Friendship; Health care industry; Health services; Home health care; Independent living; Informal care; Older people; Polls & surveys; Relatives; Retirement
• ISSN: 1330-2965; 1845-6014
• DOI: 10.3935/rsp.v23i2.1317

Most care provided to the elderly living at home comes from informal caregivers: family members, friends and neighbours. With the development of community services such as community healthcare, personal lifeline systems for the elderly or the panic button, home care and similar, informal care is enhanced by formal community forms of care. The data from the SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) survey was used to estimate the number of people (over 65 years old) who receive an individual type of care (no care, only informal care, only formal care, a combination of the two), as well as the number of people who need care, but fail to receive it. The multinomial logistic regression method was also used to evaluate the factors that influence the type of care. Similar to other European countries, the need and the availability of informal caregivers have the strongest influence on the type of care, whereas the distribution of types of care mostly resembles Mediterranean countries.