Providing care is self-care: Towards valuing older people's care provision in global economies.

Providing care is self-care: Towards valuing older people's care provision in global economies.
Gerontologist. 2020 Jun 23;:
Authors: Akhter-Khan SC
Abstract
Older people's care provision is structurally undervalued, posing a threat to social connectedness and healthy aging. Thus, the question arises of how older people's care provision can be valued in diverse economies? By addressing this question, this article proposes a novel perspective by shedding light on the value of contributions older people provide to society, which in turn promote their own well-being. By highlighting evolutionary and proximal motives for older people to provide care, this article advances the theoretical understanding of the benefits of caregiving in the global aging context, going beyond previous successful aging approaches. These new directions aim to center older people's needs while accounting for their care provisions to fruitfully inform policy making. Finally, the main challenge remaining for future work is to create adequate and valuable opportunities for older people to provide care as Homines curans.
PMID: 32574372 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: The Gerontologist - June 22, 2020 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Akhter-Khan SC Tags: Gerontologist Source Type: research