Events

This conference is organised by Asia Research Institute; with support from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, and Centre for Family and Population Research, National University of Singapore.

As countries face population aging, long-term care becomes a pivotal concern; with expectations that the demand for the provision of health and supportive services increases with a growing elderly population. It is near universal that the family plays an intrinsic role in long-term care for the elderly, however, long term care has increasingly been examined with relation to institutionalization. On the one hand formal long term care institutions are criticized to have disruptive effects on kin relations and social networks (Mold et al. 2005), while on the other hand there are contrastive findings highlighting positive effects of institutionalization such as greater independence and a revalued lifestyle in the concept of the “third age” on the part of the elderly (Henrard 1996: 668). Nonetheless, majority of older persons are shown to prefer to live in the community rather than in formal care institutions in later life (Feder, Komisar, and Niefeld 2000; Costa-Font 2009).

This international conference focusing on the care and well-being of elderly in Asia aims to explore issues relating to the ensuring of quality and adequacy of long-term care in the familial context. The preference of aging in place has long been a feature of Asia. Long-term care for the elderly has been bolstered by cultural values such as filial piety which has placed demands on children to provide care towards ageing parents. In some countries, governments have reinforced this care pattern through old-age policies which have reinscribed the family as the primary site of eldercare. However, much less is known about how the state has ensured quality long-term care for the elderly the family.

In the familial context, the organization of care, including care for the elderly, is largely left in the hands of women in the family. Economic and social changes, however, have lent to shifts in the organization of care in the family. In the more affluent countries in Asia, long-term care has increasingly become transferred to paid workers, especially with growing numbers of women joining the labour force. Falling fertility rates in the Asian region would also signal fewer caregivers for the elderly. The quality of long-term care provisions, encompassing a broad range of support services from personal care, healthcare and social services and rehabilitative care, however, is complicated by a range of other factors from eligibility, payment/insurance schemes, and regulatory mechanisms to the individuals’ supportive and palliative care needs.

REGISTRATION 
Admission is free, however registration is required to attend the conference.

CONFERENCE CONVENORS

Assoc Prof THANG Leng Leng
Department of Japanese Studies, and Centre for Family and Population Research,
National University of Singapore
E | lengthang@nus.edu.sg

Prof Wei-Jun Jean YEUNG
Asia Research Institute, Centre for Family and Population Research,
and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
E | ariywj@nus.edu.sg