Elder Care in Crisis: How the Social Safety Net Fails Families

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the crisis in caring for elderly people, with government policies based on an ethic of family responsibility and direct care workers receiving little respect, remuneration, or job security. Elder Care in Crisis examines the availability and quality of respite care, the long process of deciding whether to move spouses and partners to institutions, and the likelihood of caregivers engaging in political action to demand greater public support. The pandemic has also provided an impetus for change and helped activists and scholars develop a vision of a future in which care is central to social life.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 01 October 2022
Publisher: New York University Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a crisis in caring for elderly people, with government policies based on an ethic of family responsibility and repeated calls to support family members caring for the burgeoning elderly population going unanswered. Without publicly funded long-term care services, many family caregivers cannot find relief from obligations that threaten to overwhelm them. The crisis also stems from the plight of direct care workers, most of whom are women from racially marginalized groups who receive little respect, remuneration, or job security. Drawing on an online support group for people caring for spouses and partners with dementia, Elder Care in Crisis examines the availability and quality of respite care, the long, tortuous process through which family members decide whether to move spouses and partners to institutions, and the likelihood that caregivers will engage in political action to demand greater public support. When the pandemic began, caregivers watched in horror as nursing homes turned into deathtraps and then locked their doors to visitors. Terrified by the possibility of loved ones in nursing homes contracting the disease or suffering from loneliness, some caregivers brought them home. Others endured the pain of leaving relatives with severe cognitive impairments at the hospital door and the difficulties of sheltering in place with people with dementia who could not understand safety regulations or describe their symptoms. Direct care workers were compelled to accept unsafe conditions or leave the labor force. At the same time, however, the disaster provided an impetus for change and innovation in the care of older people.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479815395