Family Caregiving for Frail Older Adults: A Resilience Approach

Content introduction：

　　

 

学术沙龙之特邀讲座

 

题目：Family Caregiving for Frail Older Adults: A Resilience Approach

 

主讲人：樓瑋群（Vivian W. Q. Lou）

 

时间：2013年12月18日（周三）下午3：30-5：00

 

地点：北师大后主楼2026会议室

 

语言：英文

 

 

 

Invited Talk

 

Topic:  Family Caregiving for Frail Older Adults: A Resilience Approach

 

Speaker: Vivian W. Q. Lou

 

Time: December 18,  3:30-5:00pm

 

Location: 2026 The North Main Building

 

Language: English

 

 

 

About the Talk

 

China contains one-fifth of aging population worldwide, within which around 33 million people aged 60 or above have suffered deficits in Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Family caregiving for frail older adults at their own homes has been normative expected historically and will be the one of the key contributors in welfare mix for aged care in future. Dr. Vivian W. Q. Lou conducts studies on Psychological Well-being of Family Caregivers in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which aims to examine factors associated with psychological well-being of family caregivers that can shed light on needs of family caregivers from an ecological point of view.

 

This seminar will start with a critical examination of population aging and long-term care arrangement in the Chinese context. Since the communist victory in 1949, state policy has strongly reinforced family-based care for the elderly by law. However, the past few decades’ economic reforms in China empowered a market force, a third party in between family and the state that could take a role in aged care by providing out-of-pocket pay for long-term care facilities, home-based care or domestic helpers. Families are thus subjected to a complex set of forces on aged care arrangement. Would the reconstruction of norms contribute to a return to tradition, or the opposite? As other developing countries are also opening up their economies and reforming state interventions, the experiences of Chinese families under such social changes can have relevance to families in other parts of the world.

 

Regardless of the fact that the majority of family caregivers in developing countries had resilient outcomes, in many cases continuously providing care without showing severe distress, scholars and practitioners often disagree with each other on how to conceptualize resilience, and this debate places significant barriers on theoretical explanations that could inform culturally sensitive policy making. After examining the conceptualization of caregiving resilience by integrating family resilience framework and life course perspective, it is argued that family caregiving resilience can be better understood by focusing on four core themes that included norms on filial responsibility, decision-making on care arrangement, and communication patterns and childhood parent-child relations. Policy implications will be discussed.

 

 

 

About the Speaker

 

Dr. Vivian W. Q. LOU is Assistant Professor of Department of Social Work and Social Administration (SWSA), The University of Hong Kong. She is currently working on ageing studies related to family caregiving for frail older adults in China, intergenerational support and psychological well-being of older adults, and evidence-based intervention to enhance psychological of Chinese older adults in the context of ageing-in-place. She is also the Associate Director of Sau Po Centre on Ageing, The University of Hong Kong.

 

 

 

 

欢迎各位老师和同学参加！