Integration Of Formal & Informal Care

Population aging is a global issue of this century. One of the direct impacts of population aging is the rapid rise of demands for care, not only on quantity, but also on quality and contents. Just like other people, the aged also have all-around demands, physical, psychic and mental. But what is different from the others is that the aged need more care because of their declining physical functions. It is a crucial criterion in measuring the life of quality of the aged as well as the social security system level in a region that, whether they can be given the care they deserved when they are unable to take care of themselves. The mode of Community-based care is the main trend of caring the aged in most of the countries and regions. Community-based care includes formal care, provided by various nonprofit or profit-targeting social service organizations like government, community and even market-oriented enterprises etc., as well as informal care provided by residents in the community. The mode of community-based care could make good use of both formal and informal care resources. On the one hand, the function of familiar family members, neighbors and community volunteers could be fully played during caring the aged; on the other hand, the guide and assistance from professional persons could provide the aged more pertinent services. In this way, in a community environment familiar to the aged, the two different care resources complement and integrate to result in very economical and favorable effects. Therefore, formal and informal care become a pair of stressed concepts in community-based care, and also an entrance to make research into community-based care.From the perspective of formal care, informal care and their integration, the thesis probes into the academic research achievements of home and abroad in this field as well as the practical experiences and modes of different countries and regions. Based on this, it analyzes the progress achieved in the recent years and existing deficiencies of community-based care for older persons in Shanghai, and furthermore puts forward some proposals.Shanghai is the earliest region in our nation the issue of population aging occurred and also where the degree of population aging is the highest. Aging is the most distinct feature of Shanghai's population development in this century. During the rapid advancing process of population aging, the age structure of the aged is also changing, showing obvious trend of senility. To meet the requirements of high-speed developing population aging and the aging of the aged, to guarantee the life quality of the aged people, Shanghai should set up a complete and effective community-based care system. Since the 1990s, the city government has laid more and more stress on developing the career of caring the aged people. Like most of the other countries and regions, Shanghai also establishes a mode of caring the aged with community-based care as the chief way.Although community-based care for older persons in Shanghai is rapidly developing, it is still in primary stage without being a perfect system. Both formal care, informal care and their integration are existing deficiencies. To set up a integrated community-based care system, we should to establish a steady financial support mechanism and professional formal care system, and bring out informal care resource and comprehensive arrange community resource.