Kontakt 2008, 10(2):334-338 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2008.051

Conditions of taking care for seniors with reduced self-sufficiency in the context of contemporary changesHealth and Social Sciences

Hana Francová, Aleš Novotný

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra sociální práce a sociální politiky

To provide taking care of seniors with reduced self-sufficiency, the social policy in many western countries attempts to find a solution in a return to the care within the family due to the demographic development. The principal concept of a larger implementation of this care is the co-responsibility of adult children for living conditions of elderly parents, the utilization of the potential of family members and simultaneously also emphasize put on the satisfaction of wider needs concerning relationships and interactions in persons who are dependent on care provided by other people. Thus, the target of the present contribution is to point out barriers affecting the implementation of principles of the social help in the Czech Republic, i.e. principles of subsidiary and deinstitutionalisation in association with changes in the legislation arranging this social sphere. For the fulfilment of the target defined, the secondary and contents analysis of data was employed based particularly on the law on social services and law on stabilization of public budgets. The authors of the text identified short-term as well as long-term socio-economical risks of caregivers and subsequently pointed out possible variants of the solution, which could help optimize positions of caregivers and simultaneously also of persons dependent on the assistance. The solutions outlined would call for adopting important measures, for example legalization of the duty to compile mid-term plans of social services by villages with extended areas of competences or supporting of economical stability of family caregivers through the mediation of the institute of the readiness to take the care of or to support the caregivers with the use of analogous provisions applied to persons upbringing children without means, as defined in the existing law on the retirement insurance.

Keywords: support of family care; financial contribution to the care; economical insecurity of caregivers; social services

Received: August 22, 2008; Accepted: October 29, 2008; Prepublished online: December 17, 2008; Published: December 17, 2009  Show citation