Elderly Spouse Caregivers Load Of Care And Welfare Policies

Long-term care for the elderly is a significant and practical problem that can not be avoided in the progress of rapid aging tendency of population in China. For now and a long time in the future, family care remains an integral part of the elderly care system. Supporting culture is bogging down and the elderly family caregivers facing a huge load, for reasons of serious phenomenon in population aging, empty nest, the elderly disability, short supply of old folks’ homes with nursing care and tendency of few-children in families. Load of long-term care threatens the caregivers’health, psychological adjustment, etc. However, this group of caregivers seldom enjoy the welfare support policies from the government and the society.There is no systematic welfare policies to support caregivers at home, typically, community day care and respite service remain in the starting stage, and not designed for the caregivers’individuation and complex needs. Though titling to the elders of the government’s policies and founding support for family, community and institution relieves caregivers’stress in some way, it can not ensure caregivers’welfare from top to bottom. Thus, relevant welfare support policies formulated by the government to enhance caregivers’living quality and to make the caregivers together with the person being cared get along healthy lives looms ahead.Taking documentary, questionnaire and interviewing as the methods, the elderly spouse caregiver as the object, the study aims to analyze the load of family spouse caregivers and the impact on their physical and mental health, then to investigate the condition of caregivers’s caring resource usage and their welfare needs. The study indicates that, firstly, the caregivers’physical condition does a notable effect on the load and the risk control and vice versa; secondly, speaking of informal caring resource needs, most caregivers tend to the emotional one, and of formal caring resource needs, they tend to monetary allowance and services from the government.Finally, inspired by the country (territory) welfare policy to support family caregivers, such as:support for caregivers welfare policy-community care, respite care, case management, caregiver support groups, family counseling and other benefits policy, caregivers can benefit more from it; legal and financial support given by government for the home, the community, the aged and other aspects of the indirect welfare policy for caregivers, although the most important purpose of these policies is to supplement the existing official which lacking of resources and reduce the cost of care for the elderly, it is not really concerned about the welfare of the caregiver, but caregivers can get some help indirectly. Combine with the caregivers’welfare needs, this study suggest two aspects of welfare policy to support caregivers---social policy and social welfare. On the one hand, first, protect the social rights of the family members, second, protect the economic security of older women, last, face up to the State responsibility for family care; on the other hand, establish alternative care services support program, support caregivers in terms of economic, psychological, finally stress the initiative to intervene to take care of the resources to meet the welfare needs of the caregiver better.