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Previous research has shown that user-oriented care predicts older persons’ satisfaction with care. What is yet to be researched is how senior management facilitates the implementation of user-oriented care. The purpose of this study is to investigate the organizing principles and management climate characterizing successful elderly care.

The department in one highly ranked municipality was selected and compared with a more average municipality. On-site in-depth semi-structured interviews with department managers and participatory observations at managers’ meetings were conducted in both municipalities.

Results revealed three key principles for successful elderly care: organizing care from the viewpoint of the older person; recruiting and training competent and autonomous employees; instilling a vision for the mission that guides operations at all levels in the organization. Furthermore, using climate theory to interpret the empirical material, in the highly successful municipality the management climate was characterized by affective support and cognitive autonomy, in contrast to a more instrumental work climate primarily focusing on organizational structure and doing the right things characterizing the more average municipality.

The authors suggest that guiding organizing principles are intertwined with management climate and that there are multiple perspectives that must be considered by the management, that is, the views of the older persons, the co-workers and the mission. These results can guide future care quality developments, and increase the understanding of the importance of organizational climate at the senior management level.

National Board of Health and Welfare claims that the quality of elderly care services differ considerably between municipalities in Sweden. This study aims to analyze to what extent these variations can be accounted for by the older person’s municipality affiliation (i.e. receiving elderly care in a certain municipality).

Addressing this issue, national survey data from 78,538 older respondents receiving elderly care services in Sweden were analyzed using multilevel modeling (MLM).

The results showed that municipality affiliation only marginally explained the variance in satisfaction with care, i.e. its variations were larger within than between municipalities. Instead, user-oriented care accounted for the variation in satisfaction with care. Specifically, the way the care workers behave toward the older person proved to be much more crucial for satisfaction with care than municipality affiliation. Moreover, random effects analyses revealed that the effects of user-oriented care on satisfaction with care varied across municipalities. Care setting (i.e. home care or nursing home) only marginally accounted for its variance.

Developing care quality should start and primarily be discussed at the interpersonal care level, and not, as is customary, at the municipality level.

The present research is the first in its kind to quantitatively investigate the sources of variation in perceived quality of Swedish elderly care using MLM.

Turkey faces many problems with its rapidly ageing population. Physical and emotional problems may increase with advancing age, for example, dementia can lead to bio‐psycho‐social care problems of patients, as well as stress and burnout of caregivers. Elders with dementia who have complex care needs appear to be especially at risk of abuse and neglect. Research into elder abuse in Turkey has shown that abuse has been found to occur in low proportions: physical abuse 1.5%, financial abuse 2.5%, and psychological abuse/neglect 3.5% (Keskinoğlu et al, 2004).

A growing stream of consumer research has examined the intersection of family dynamics, consumption practices and the marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to make sense of the complex nature of family for senior families (adult children and their elderly parents) who employ the use of elder care services and facilities.

This research analyses data gathered from in-depth interviews with adult siblings and their elderly parents through the lens of assemblage theory.

This paper advances a conceptulisation of the family as an evolving assemblage of components, including individual members; material possessions and home(s); shared values, goals, memories and practices; prominent familial attributes of love and care; and marketplace resources. Three features of the assemblage come to the fore in senior families: the fluid meaning of independence for the elderly parent, the evolution of shared family practices and the trajectory of the assemblage that is a function of its history and future.

This research focuses on a stage of family life that has been under-theorised; applies assemblage theory to the family collective, demonstrating that a family can be conceptualised as an ever-evolving assemblage of human and non-human components, and this is a useful lens for understanding how senior families “do” family; and argues for a broader notion of family – one that is not household-centric or focused on families with young children, that encompasses members and materiality and that foregrounds the dynamic, evolving nature of family life.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate eldercare issues in China through exploring what was discussed about eldercare in a Chinese online community for older adults (OCOA).

Netnography was used to explore eldercare-related online discussion in a Chinese OCOA – LaoYouBang. After a two-month-long online observation, 275 microblogs and 594 comments were collected and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively.

The main findings include as follows: the users involved in an online discussion about eldercare were consist of four categories, namely, elderly user, non-elderly user, advertiser and community administrator. Non-elderly user include the elderly’s caregivers and families, young and middle-aged people concerning about eldercare. From 2012 to 2017, eldercare issues gradually became refined and differentiated in China and elderly users’ contribution proportion and activeness increased yearly. According to the results of thematic analysis, users’ information needs for eldercare included opinion, news, practice, emotion, knowledge and others. In China, some changes have taken place in the public’s conceptions of eldercare, embodied in the changes in the public’s attention, attitudes and cognition. Changes in user structure and communication patterns in OCOA have also been noted. OCOA plays an important role in eldercare information dissemination and social support exchange and helps to meet the eldercare challenges.

This study explored an online community for older adults. This is the first netnography study in the information field on Chinese OCOA. This paper provides new perspectives to explore eldercare issues and OCOA in other regions and cultures and it also provides some suggestions to improve OCOA.

With Singapore having the fifth fastest aging population in the world, the implications associated with such as a phenomenon have finally placed the elderly on the Singapore Government's national agenda in 1999. As the elderly constitute an increasing proportion of Singapore's population, it is pertinent to address their needs and concerns, which have direct impacts on their well‐being and quality of life. Also studies the context of a multi‐racial society. Evaluates the quality of life of the elderly in Singapore in terms of their overall life satisfaction as well as their perception of the importance and satisfaction towards the 17 domains of life identified. Using a five‐point Likert scale, reveals that the elderly in Singapore are generally satisfied with their quality of life, which is significantly influenced by three demographic variables. While the elderly perceive personal health condition, family ties and public safety to be more important, they tend to be more satisfied with family ties, public safety and public transportation, and are less satisfied with arts and culture as well as leisure and recreation facilities that are available in Singapore. Therefore suggests that the quality of life of the elderly in Singapore is more likely to be determined by its socio‐cultural context rather than along racial lines.

The purpose of this paper is to identify connections between empathy and social care and to describe aspects of empathy in social care work, by bringing together research from different fields.

Five doctoral theses which discussed empathy among care workers of older people in Sweden were analysed as a group. The theses had been published over the period 1996 to 2007. Methodologically, the examination underpinned an interpretive content analysis.

The meta‐analysis revealed conflicting feelings among care workers. Most experienced frustration when they were not able to express empathy in their working practices. Empathy was typically hindered by lack of time, care workers' own needs, and inflexible home care systems. However, a key element of the job‐satisfaction reported by care workers appeared to be its empathic nature. Most care workers perceive encounters with older people as opportunities to respond empathically rather than indifferently. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The study is an overview that attempts to build a bridge across the two concepts, social care and empathy. The main strength of this analysis is its originality of approach undertaking a specific literature review and reflecting on a subject that has not previously been explored in the Swedish context.

Care of older persons in their own homes has in recent years received much attention in Ireland. The proponents of domiciliary care draw on both economic and quality of life arguments, many of which are identifiable in policy documents since the 1950s. However, little detailed analysis of the evolution of the formal care services for older persons, and the shift in emphasis from institutional to domiciliary care, has been presented. The paper aims to focus on the issues.

Using archival, administrative and policy sources, the authors traced the changing nature of formal care policies in Ireland, and analysed changes in key organising principles and features, including subsidiarity, the role of the Church and the basis of entitlements (residual vs universal).

The first type of formal care to emerge was institutional, and did not adhere to the subsidiarity principle as it was mostly delivered by the State. Subsidiarity came to the fore more clearly with the establishment of the earliest home care services by religious and voluntary organisations. The current trend towards cash‐for‐care (home care packages) is arguably a modern‐day manifestation of the arm's length attitude that the subsidiarity principle recommends the State take.

The fact that care services are increasingly delivered by private sector companies and informal carers operating in the grey market increases the complexity of the care regime and therefore makes the task of developing social care regime classifications more complicated; it also means that regulation of the care sector in Ireland is a particularly urgent task that is yet to be undertaken in a comprehensive manner.

The policy challenges involved in attempts to regulate the complex care mix are considerable.

The paper utilises both historical methods and policy analysis to highlight the changing meaning of key concepts such as subsidiarity.

Purpose – Aims to describe a project carried out within Hampshire Social Services investigating potential care pathways for older people after discharge from hospital and to show the potential of the simulation methodology in such situations. Design/methodology/approach – A discrete‐event simulation was used to determine the system capacities and to estimate the likely associated reimbursement costs. Findings – A prototype simulation model was developed showing the potential value of this approach. Research limitations/implications – Restrictions in data access shifted the focus from quantitative service mapping to a more descriptive approach. Practical implications – Currently, many older patients experience delayed discharge from acute beds because of capacity limitations in Social Services’ traditional post‐acute care services. At the same time, new regulations require Local Authorities to reimburse NHS Acute Trusts if hospital discharge is delayed solely due to inadequate provision of social care assessments and services. In order to overcome the so‐called “bed‐blocking” problem, a new range of services termed “Intermediate Care” has been introduced to offer alternative options for older patients. These services are examined in terms of capacity and appropriateness. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified need to record and evaluate the new post‐acute packages introduced by the Social Services and NHS and proposes simulation as one of the most suitable methodologies for such objectives.

The purpose of this study is to establish a set of measurable criteria for elderly nursing homes (ENHs) in Lebanon. Donabedian's model known by structure/process/outcome was used as the driving conceptual framework for the study.

The study reports on a panel discussion where administrators, caregivers and specialists, separately established and exchanged key information on best practice approach. The work was carried out in the summer of 2008, using the consensus panel method. A group of expert opinions (Dalkey) made up of elderly home administrators and caregivers, policy makers, and academics discussed specific key issues related to elderly health and quality of life.

A total of 40 criteria were retained along seven main dimensions: types of elderly homes; funding; health services; boarding services; activities; structures; and elderly rights.

A major limitation in this study is that elderly were not part of the consensus making process. Thus, including elderly in the process would have substantiated and added validity to the established criteria.

The criteria developed in this study can be turned into key performance standards for elderly homes in Lebanon, other Mediterranean and Arab countries. These criteria would greatly benefit elderly homes if validated and used as guidelines for quality care.

The study is original in the sense that it seeks to establish measures for criteria, a blueprint, and benchmarks for ENH standards.