SOCIO-SPATIAL APPROACH TO AGING AND TO THE PROGRAMS FOR CARERS OF OLDER PERSONS

Abstract

Adult and older women are the primary caregivers (and care demandants) of older dependent persons. They are also the protagonists of support programs for caregivers, both as plaintiffs and receivers, and also as professionals who provide this support, with different access to these programs for rural or urban population. The main objective of this article is to analyse the problems and situations related to the needs of this population who demands programs and also to address the treatment of these supports. For this, a qualitative and quantitative methodology is used, following a strategy of triangulation. The results convey that although women apply for and participate in these programs (whose positive effects on their quality of life have been checked), these are insufficient: These do not cover the needs and new demands of care, which means that a large majority of women are still in charge of caring work alone. In the same way, their presence in the design, management and coordination of these programs, even more absent in rural areas, is very limited in the “Emptied Spain”. Consequently, more choice of programs / psychosocial support (individual or group), entertainment and leisure, and training for this profile of caregivers and program managers are required. These and other findings are those developed from the ENCAGE-CM Program and CM:LEDYEVA Project.

Keywords

• envejecimiento
• género
• rural/urbano
• cuidados
• dependencia
• evaluación de programas