Rethinking social care services for elderly persons in Zambia

Abstract

The Elderly people in Zambia face numerous challenges resulting from high poverty levels, stigma, and social exclusion, poor service provision in old people's homes, and lack of proper care and support from family and the public. In addition, changes in population ageing have also resulted in increased longevity affecting the obligatory responsibilities of the state and the family to meet individual needs in caregiving adequately. This situation demands to rethink of how social care service provision in Zambia can be improved by identifying the best approaches for quality services and quality access to basic needs both in care homes and in communities and ensuring that elderly persons lead a good and decent life during their last years of life.
The research aims to explore a deeper understanding of how elderly people want to live their lives and how their relatives, the state, and community members should care for them. The qualitative research design was used with the phenomenological approach to understanding the experiences and perceptions of elderly persons. The study recruited 24 participants and targeted elderly people from rural and urban communities, elderly people from Maramba old people's homes, community volunteers, social workers, and a caregiver. The study uses a conceptual framework of social care and social inclusion to clearly understand the challenges of elderly people in an ageing society. The data from the semi-structured interviews were complemented with a group discussion. Findings were analyzed using thematic analysis to generate themes with reference to the literature review. The findings point to limited access to basic needs and social care services both in old people's homes and in communities. The experiences and perspectives of the elderly related to social care provisions are physical, emotional, relation and esteem, and independent, categorized into three themes: Social relation care, Empowerment support and power, and physical and health care. The most fundamental element of care is social relations which provide emotional and self-esteem, belonging, and worthiness for elderly persons.

Popular Abstract

In Zambia, the State has a fundamental responsibility to care for its citizens and provide social care services to the elderly for better wellbeing. However, the poverty levels are too high for the State to provide adequate social care services and fully meet its goal of reducing and stopping poverty transfer from one generation to the other. With the increase in the global population, it is now evident that more people are living longer, in as much as the government is taking measures to address poverty challenges among vulnerable groups, it is experiencing an increase in the ageing population. Elderly people are among the vulnerable groups that face many challenges in Zambia, inferior individuals without families or anyone to care for or look after them. The family setting is slowly changing from being a communion to a more individualistic one where the extended family's responsibility is reduced and where most elderly persons are now looking after themselves or are in government or private care institutions.

On the other hand, elderly people are perceived as people who can no longer contribute effectively to national development because of their age and living conditions. However, every individual goes through the ageing process with different needs requiring serious attention with good social care services and support. It is cardinal for individuals, families, and the State to consider looking at things differently and strengthen family ties and community engagement in strengthening the Zambian culture and tradition of caring for one another, even to those with no relation. To achieve this, interviews were conducted with various vital informants from rural and urban areas of the Livingstone District. This study aims at understanding elderly persons' experiences and perceptions of social care services. It further provides proposed remedies to the discussed challenges that require a change in how society perceives elderly people and how the State provides the needed social care services to elderly people. The study discusses recommendations that build on rethinking how the best provision of social care services can be made. To help meet the desires of elderly people and know the kinds of social care services they hope to receive. After that, appropriate interventions are discussed targeting the difficulties that elderly people face, which require a holistic approach to providing a variety of services through inclusion and integration of social services.

• author: Hatembo, Annette
• supervisor: Charalambos Demetriou
• organization: School of Social Work; Department of Sociology; Sociology
• course: WPMM42 20221
• year: 2022
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Social Sciences
• keywords: Ageing, elderly people, family, community, caregiving, old people’s home, social care.
• language: English
• id: 9087719
• date added to LUP: 2022-06-14 08:56:07
• date last changed: 2022-06-14 08:56:07