Nursing homes have been criticised for restricting the lifestyle of older people in need of care. As concepts of elder care have changed and services in formal care have developed further, efforts towards deinstitutionalisation have led to the enhancement of community care models. This paper discusses how ideas of community care can also influence reform within institutional care. The study focuses on the challenges and obstacles of practice change arising in German nursing homes by opening up to civil society principles. Applying the model of organisational hybridisation, the concept of 12 German nursing homes regarding family and community partners' involvement were analysed through explorative qualitative interviews with nursing home directors. The nursing homes have conceived various forms of co-operation with community actors. Nevertheless, emerging tensions between state, market and civil society conceptions of the nursing homes limit practical change. The ‘organisational hybridisation’ has generated two general problems to be discussed here: first, the difficulty nursing homes have in opening their doors to new perceptions of care as well as to the interests of their community partners. Second, the fact that the nursing homes tend either to strive for an integration in community life or for the maintenance of a ‘sheltered zone’ for their residents implies that nursing homes' definition of ‘normality’ has a strong influence on their chosen concept of care.

Interpersonal financial abuse of older people is well documented but the potential role of financial institutions is rarely examined. Financial institution mistreatment describes direct and indirect practices by financial institutions that threaten the financial wellbeing of older people. This analysis was based on a survey of community-dwelling older people (N = 2,021) aged 65 years and older, and examined self-reports of interpersonal and financial institution mistreatment. The prevalence of interpersonal financial abuse was reported by nearly 2 per cent of respondents compared to 1 per cent for financial institution mistreatment. The socio-demographic and health characteristics of the group who experienced interpersonal financial mistreatment were different from those who reported financial institution mistreatment. The boundaries between the two phenomena were explored using a social ecology framework that reflects the influences of ageism and normative practices on elder abuse. The study confirms previous international evidence on interpersonal financial abuse and provides preliminary data on financial mistreatment by financial institutions. The evidence has implications for policy and current preventative strategies that tend to ignore the influence of macro-contextual factors such as legislative and institutional normative practices, government policies and societal attitudes that can act as permissors of some types of financial mistreatment.

Second couplehood in old age following widowhood or divorce is a phenomenon developing with the increase in life expectancy and is yet to be accepted as part of the normative ageing process. The aim of this paper is to examine how family members of three generations perceive second couplehood in old age as a new phenomenon within a changing society and a dynamic family structure. The multigenerational families of 19 second-couplehood dyads (a total of 38 multigenerational families) were recruited using criterion sampling. The second-couplehood dyads were composed of men who repartnered at age 65+ and women at 60+, with children and grandchildren from a lifelong marriage. We tape recorded and transcribed verbatim 107 semi-structured qualitative interviews with older partners, their adult children and grandchildren. Analysis was based on grounded theory and dyadic-analysis principles adapted to families. Two main themes were found that presented gaps between reality and ideality experienced by the participants regarding second couplehood: as a problem through its disadvantages, and as a solution through its advantages. The gaps in both themes were bridged by the account: ‘as long as it's good’. Findings are discussed in the context of modernisation theory, the lifecourse and the family lifecycle perspectives relating to changes in family structure and ambivalence and how to deal with them on the macro, mezzo and micro levels.

The rising number of private care arrangements in which live-in migrant care workers are engaged as a functional equivalent to family care calls for special attention by policy makers and formal long-term care providers on their implications for quality assurance and professional standards in the long-term care sector. Austria is one of the first countries in Europe where tangible legal measures have been taken to regulate this area under the heading of ‘24-hour care’, typically provided by middle-aged women. Reform measures went beyond policing and control mechanisms, including also incentives and tangible subsidies for all stakeholders. This paper contributes to a better understanding of their impact on the transition from informal to formal economy, focusing on quality assurance and working conditions. Based on empirical data and findings from semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders, a framework for the analysis of ‘illegal markets', based on Beckert and Wehinger's theory, is used to discuss potential implications in terms of valuation, competition and co-operation for policy in Austria, and to draw lessons for other countries. Results indicate that even after efforts to ‘legalise’ migrant care, the sector remains a ‘grey’ area within modern labour market legislation and quality management. This is due to the very nature of personal care, low professional status associated with care work and the reluctance of political stakeholders to regulate private household activities.

In our society that values men over women and youth over old age, sexism and ageism intersect to erode women's status more rapidly and severely than men's. However, limited attention is given to women's responses to their devaluation, particularly collective efforts to either resist or accommodate dominant beliefs about ageing women. We examine membership in the Red Hat Society, an international organisation for middle-aged and older women, as a response to gendered ageism. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with members (N = 52), our analysis focuses on the group's ‘performance of girlhood’, which involves adopting children's social roles, dressing up and playing. We examine its resonance with a dominant cultural metaphor for old age as ‘second childhood’, illustrating how it not only provides opportunities for resistance to gendered ageism but also contributes to its entrenchment. The behaviours constitute a performative act that resists gendered ageism by increasing ageing women's visibility and asserting their right to leisure. However, its accommodative features reproduce inequality by valuing youth over old age and depicting older women as girls engaging in frivolous activities, which can be seen as obstructing social change.

How do grandparents spend their child-care time? We examine how the composition of grandparent child care differs from parent child care, and whether child-care composition is more gender-similar for grandparents than for parents. Using the most recent (2006) Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey, we investigate along three dimensions: (a) the activities child care consists of (routine versus non-routine), (b) whether it is multi-tasked (and whether it is paired with productive activities or with leisure), and (c) whether it is done solo or with a partner present. We find fathers and grandmothers' active child care is similarly apportioned between routine and non-routine activities, while mothers spend much more, and grandfathers spend much less, of their child-care time in routine care activities. Fathers and grandfathers spend similar proportions of their child-care time multi-tasking with leisure (about 50%) and performing care without their spouse present (about 20%), differing significantly from women on both these measures. Gender differences in the proportion of child care multi-tasked with productive activities (paid work, domestic work or other child care) are the same in both generations, but gender differences in the proportion of child care that is spent in routine activities, and that is done without a partner present, are significantly less for grandparents than for parents. The narrower gender gaps result from grandmothers spending less of their child-care time on these measures than mothers, not from grandfathers spending more of their child-care time on these measures than fathers.

The present study evaluates a conceptual model of elder neglect within the home care arrangement that takes into consideration the older adult, his or her family members, and the home care worker. Data from 223 complete care-giving units, which consist of an older adult, a family member and a home care worker, were analysed using structural equation modelling. Overall, 31.5 per cent of the older adults, 18 per cent of the care workers and 32.3 per cent of the family members reported at least one type of elder neglect. The proposed model showed a reasonable fit to the data. There was an inverse effect from type of home care to family member's burden and elder neglect, with live-in (around the clock) care being associated with lower levels of family member burden and elder neglect compared with live-out Israeli home care (provided for several hours per week). The amount of informal assistance provided by family members was inversely related to the amount of burden reported by home care workers, with greater informal assistance being associated with lower levels of worker burden. The findings call for the important role of formal home care by demonstrating a potentially protective effect for live-in migrant home care. The study also emphasises the shared burden between formal and informal sources of care.

This study explores how common spaces in assisted living schemes for older persons are used by the residents. Observation studies, group interviews with staff and individual interviews with residents, relatives, architects and key stakeholders in the context of Swedish elder-care were conducted. Common spaces are the major location for in-house social interaction on the units. The results show a higher presence on the dementia units, compared to the somatic units. No significant correlation was found between the residents' mobility limitations and their degree of presence in the common spaces. The results also suggest a contradiction between the staff's intentions to provide a social context and the capabilities of the residents. Although common spaces are not used much between meals, the residents stress their importance for social interaction, suggesting that common spaces have important qualitative aspects, rather than quantitative. The results also show that few of the residents used the common spaces together with their relatives. The increasing use of assistive technology creates a shortage of space, suggesting a conflict between the efforts to create a home-like environment and the use of assistive technology.

Later-life loneliness is becoming an area of great concern in Uganda in light of gradual weakening of extended family as a source of old-age human support. Although information about the effects of feeling lonely exists, little is known about the associated risk factors within the country's social and cultural setting. This paper discusses prevalence and correlates of feeling lonely among older persons. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on 605 older persons in a 2012 cross-sectional study. Respondents were asked to evaluate how they felt in terms of loneliness during the administration of the questionnaire. A total of ten focus group discussions and 12 key informant interviews were also conducted to collect qualitative data. Binary logistic regression was used to predict factors affecting loneliness. Findings indicate that approximately seven in ten older persons felt lonely. Elderly people residing in the urban area were more likely to be lonely than their counterparts staying in the rural environment. In comparison with married older persons, elderly people who were widowed were more likely to be lonely. Absence of a television and pension benefits and prevalence of limb joint ill-health predicted loneliness. The findings have several implications, including developing age-friendly urban centres, encouraging old-age social organisations, decentralising the elderly health-care system and establishing a special old-age fund.