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The last resort? Revisiting ideas about older people's living arrangements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 1999

CHRISTINE OLDMAN  and
DEBORAH QUILGARS
CHRISTINE OLDMAN
Affiliation:
Centre for Housing Policy, University of York
DEBORAH QUILGARS
Affiliation:
Centre for Housing Policy, University of York
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Abstract

This article starts with a critique of the literature relating to the living at home/living in a home contrast. It shows this body of work to be dominated by a structured dependency paradigm which depicts residential care as exemplar of institution and home as embodying personal control and self- identity. A modification of the paradigm which gives prominence to diversity and meaning is used to analyse in-depth interviews with frail older people living at home and in a home. The analysis suggests that the prevailing account of residential care needs updating and some revision. The article concludes that the marketisation of social care has had both positive and negative effects on both care delivery in a home and at home. It also contends that there is a limited demand from older people for collective living arrangements and that institutionalisation processes affect older people in whatever setting.

Keywords

Institution/home dichotomyresidential carehome caremarketisationtheories of old age
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , May 1999 , pp. 363 - 384
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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