The aging process is complex, given the diversity and heterogeneity of the aging population. Issues and needs of senior citizens are varied and differ in the context of region, culture, socioeconomic profiles, education, living arrangements, and support facilities. It affects the senior citizens and society in different ways. The Family Welfare Agency (FWA) is a social organization established in 1950 to address issues of families by providing various welfare services to the community. Over time, the Agency evolved from a remedial and therapeutic approach towards a preventive and developmental approach in elder care, focusing on the growing concerns of senior citizens within the local communities. These included slums, common tenements, and residential areas, which are congested and have difficult living conditions. The Agency program for the elderly is an ongoing continuum of care experiences spanning over four decades. These range from introducing the day services for the care of the elderly, rather than just institutional care for the elderly, which was available, to efforts to facilitate the elderly to be maintained within their family and community through the enrichment care centers and its outreach sensitization care program, focusing on prevention of elder abuse and health care for the homebound elderly. This approach involved the participation and contribution of not only the elderly but also that of other interest groups within the community in supporting the process of “Community Care of the Elderly an Evolving Continuum of Responsive Care.” In this chapter, the Agency encounters the aging experiences at the level of the grassroots communities within the constraints and challenges in the urban context, to bring forth the need for redressal and attention across various levels and multifaceted approaches, both by the government and the society at large.

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Community Services for the Elderly: Multidimensional Approach Towards Elder Care—The Family Welfare Agency

  • Alpa Desai,
  • Jasmine Pavri

摘要

The aging process is complex, given the diversity and heterogeneity of the aging population. Issues and needs of senior citizens are varied and differ in the context of region, culture, socioeconomic profiles, education, living arrangements, and support facilities. It affects the senior citizens and society in different ways. The Family Welfare Agency (FWA) is a social organization established in 1950 to address issues of families by providing various welfare services to the community. Over time, the Agency evolved from a remedial and therapeutic approach towards a preventive and developmental approach in elder care, focusing on the growing concerns of senior citizens within the local communities. These included slums, common tenements, and residential areas, which are congested and have difficult living conditions. The Agency program for the elderly is an ongoing continuum of care experiences spanning over four decades. These range from introducing the day services for the care of the elderly, rather than just institutional care for the elderly, which was available, to efforts to facilitate the elderly to be maintained within their family and community through the enrichment care centers and its outreach sensitization care program, focusing on prevention of elder abuse and health care for the homebound elderly. This approach involved the participation and contribution of not only the elderly but also that of other interest groups within the community in supporting the process of “Community Care of the Elderly an Evolving Continuum of Responsive Care.” In this chapter, the Agency encounters the aging experiences at the level of the grassroots communities within the constraints and challenges in the urban context, to bring forth the need for redressal and attention across various levels and multifaceted approaches, both by the government and the society at large.