ABSTRACT
Ageing populations, changing family models, women’s increasing participation in the labour market, and changing values and attitudes towards informal caregiving are new variables which are increasingly challenging the adequacy of present welfare systems by raising, among other things, the question of whose responsibility it is to care for dependent elderly people. Up until fairly recently, the care needs of the elderly have, in most countries, been considered a private family matter and have therefore not been a focus of attention for social policy-makers. However, the present situation, characterised by a dwindling proportion of available carers coupled with an increasing proportion of people in need of care, has turned the private issue of care into a public concern in many countries. Long-term care for the elderly has thus come to be defined as a ‘new social risk’.
