The experience of caring for older people with dementia in a rural area: using services.

This paper reports findings from the carer component of the Gwynedd Dementia Study. It is based on carer interviews, using quantitative and qualitative data. It confirms earlier findings that carers for people with dementia are typically female and older than other carers, although it notes that caring husbands are amongst the oldest carers. The problems that are most common are those that cause psychological stress to carers. Carers were found to receive both help and appreciation from their families and to perceive neighbours to be helpful if needed. In Gwynedd, as elsewhere, levels of formal service inputs are low, but most of the carers appeared to receive the services they needed. Problems are primarily associated with crisis support and long-term care is accepted reluctantly. It is suggested that community care dementia specialists could play a supporting role for carers.

Ageing without children: rural Wales.

This paper aims to identify the pathways and adaptations to childlessness. It is based on data for 65 childless men and women who took part in the Bangor Longitudinal Study of Ageing (1979-1999) and survived to at least 1987. Interviews were conducted mainly in the homes of the respondents at 4 yearly intervals and both qualitative and quantitative data were recorded. The paper distinguishes between men and women and between those who married and those who never-married. The findings demonstrate contrasting life styles between childless men and childless women. Never-married childless men tend to have been employed in solitary occupations or those based on an all male workforce and to rely on dependency relationships with female kin, while men who marry rely heavily on their wives. Never-married women in contrast tend to be more independent and outgoing and to have worked in jobs which brought them into frequent contact with people. Most childless women who married had not worked after marriage; they had close relationships with husbands and on widowhood adopted an independent, self-sufficient lifestyle. The findings demonstrate more positive adaptations to childlessness among women than men.

Dementia and help with household tasks: a comparison of cases and non-cases.

This paper is based on data, relating to people aged 75+ living in the community, from the city of Liverpool and from a rural area of North Wales. It compares those suffering from cognitive brain disorders with those identified as being cognitively unimpaired. Levels of need, and sources of help with a range of domestic and home maintenance tasks are identified. Results show that most help for those who are cognitively impaired comes from relatives living in the same household, while help for those who are physically impaired comes primarily from spouses or relatives living in different households. Cases do not demonstrate a higher level of use of formal services than non-cases. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Review of findings on support networks of older Europeans.

This paper reviews findings on the support networks of older Europeans, compares methodological approaches to the study of support networks and draws together information on their contacts with family, friends and neighbours; sources of help and support; variations in network structure; and network dynamics. The paper is based on review of the literature and unpublished work with which the author is familiar. It emphasises: recent network research; approaches which look at networks as entities; and longitudinal work which draws attention to process. The aim of the paper is to give an overview of findings, to identify national similarities and differences and to suggest new directions of investigation.

A longitudinal analysis of factors related to survival in old age.

Data from a longitudinal study of the elderly in rural North Wales are used in an exploratory study of the relationships between very broadly defined social circumstances and longevity. A statistical modeling approach is adopted and has some nonroutine features necessitated by missing data on dates of death. A variety of demographic, socioeconomic, social network, quality-of-life, dependence, and health variables are found, individually, to be related to survival. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that many of these relationships are spurious and, in particular, there is no prima facie evidence that survival is affected by social networks or quality-of-life factors. However, socioeconomic factors emerge as important for the old elderly.

Survivors: Support network variation and sources of help in rural communities.

This paper analyses data on survivors (N=199) in a longitudinal study conducted in North Wales 1979-87. A typology of support networks is presented, and an association between sources of help (emotional support, common problems, domestic chores, and personal care) and type of support network is demonstrated. Sources of help shift over time, and the nature of the shift is also related to network type with some types of networks relying more heavily on formal services as time passes. Since the distribution of network types is related to community/neighbourhood/locality, the local distribution of network types has important implications for service provision.

Dependence, interdependence, and reciprocity after eighty.

This article challenges the critics of social policy perspectives seeking to provide care in the community, taking issue with the generally jaundiced view of care giving and the exploitation of women. Based on quantitative and qualitative data from a study of the over eighties in rural U.K. (N = 125), the article looks at the low incidence of heavy dependency in the elderly population living at home and suggests that the preponderance of women in caring roles results from demographic and cultural factors. The experiences of caring spouses and caring daughters are explored in detail, stressing variation in the caring experience and gains as well as losses. Attention is drawn to the reciprocal and interdependent nature of caring relationships and a more differentiated approach to the study of care is urged.

A longitudinal study of changes and adaptation in the support networks of Welsh elderly over 75.

Despite conventional wisdom that urbanization has worsened the lot of the elderly and that rural or traditional societies are, therefore, more benign environments for the very old, data from a wide cross-section of developed and developing societies suggest that more similarity than difference exists. The evidence is that most old people in all societies rely on and receive comparable levels of support from their family, friends and neighbors. Less, however, is known about the process of social support over time. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of the support networks of the old elderly (75+), looking at changes over four years in a sample of 100 old people, 30 of whom were followed in-depth for 6 years. The findings demonstrate a high level of stability in network size, radius and close kin membership. Membership of distant kin, neighbors and friends is found to be more fluid. Within the network, considerable task flexibility was observed with the qualification that intimate physical care fell exclusively in the family domain. In this case, support networks appear to adjust to meet increasing need for support.

Adapting to old age in rural Britain.

The data on which this article is based were collected to inform and guide policy for rural social service provision. Over 500 elderly persons were interviewed in their own homes using a questionnaire schedule. Over the last two decades, the availability and support of the family for the elderly has remained in debate, some writers suggesting that urbanization and industrialization have led to the weakening of family support, others claiming that the family still functions well. At the same time, the ability of the elderly to change and adapt has been questioned. In rural and less developed regions concern has been expressed that the impact of reductions in or lack of services fall hardest on the elderly. This article looks at ways in which the elderly in a remote rural area of Britain adapt to the problems of sparsity, lack of adequate public transportation, migration in and out of the region and the reality of increasing age. It shows that the elderly are capable of adaptation and have a tolerance for isolation, and that changes in residence, household composition, and methods of access are made over time. The article presents evidence of commitment on the part of others towards the elderly and creative adaptations on the part of the elderly to provide necessary support.