Informal care for elderly - comparation of Croatia and Belgium

Prikazani rad bavi se problematikom neformalne skrbi za starije osobe te se uspoređuje neformalna skrb u Republici Hrvatskoj i Belgiji. Najveći udio skrbi za starije osobe koje žive u vlastitim domovima dolazi od neformalnih pružatelja: članova obitelji, prijatelja i susjeda. U radu se polazi od definiranja pojmova starosti, starenja i neformalne skrbi za starije osobe. Nadalje je prikazano stanje skrbi za starije osobe u Hrvatskoj, te zakonodavni okvir i reforme koje su učinjene. Zatim se opisuje stanje neformalne skrbi u Belgiji i njihovom zakonodavnom okviru. Također se spominju neki aspekti skrbničkog odnosa za koji smatramo da je jako bitan u provođenju neformalne skrbi. Na kraju, tema se upotpunjuje domaćim i stranim istraživanjima o neformalnoj skrbi te se prikazuju i neki novi primjeri modela cjelovite skrbi. Skrb za starije osobe bitna je tema socijalne politike i socijalnog rada upravo zbog podizanja kvalitete života starijih osoba, a poseban naglasak je upravo na neformalnoj skrbi jer najveći teret pada upravo na neformalne pružatelje skrbi odnosno obitelj. Zato radimo usporedbu dviju država da vidimo sličnosti i razlike u nošenju s teretom rastućeg demografskog trenda starenja stanovništva.The present work deals with the problem of informal care for the elderly and compares informal care in the Republic of Croatia and Belgium. The largest proportion of care for older people living in their own homes comes from informal providers: family members, friends and neighbors. The paper starts by defining the terms of age, aging and informal care for the elderly. Furthermore, it shows the situation of care for older people in Croatia, and the legislative framework and reforms that have been made. Then we go on describing the situation of informal care in Belgium and their legal framework. Also we are referring to some aspects of caregivers relationships with elderly which we think are very important in conducting informal care. In the end, the topic is completed by domestic and foreign researches on informal care, and we present some new examples of integrated care. Caring for the elderly is an important topic of social policy and social work because of raising the quality of life of older people, and a special emphasis is on informal care as the greatest burden rests on informal caregivers and family. Therefore, we compare two countries to see the similarities and differences in dealing with the burden of a growing demographic trend of aging population