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Caring for Older People in Taiwan: The Role of Community Care Centers

Author: 
Year:
Pages:336
ISBN:1-4955-0515-4
978-1-4955-0515-7
Price:$219.95
This important book provides new and robust research on a contemporary global issue, that of population aging and how to deal with it. Dr. Cheng’s masterful analysis of Taiwan’s Community Care Centres links personal participant satisfaction in quality of life matters to the public policy and public health issues of addressing an aging society.

Reviews

“This book tackles one of the big social issues of the 21st-century – population aging…Through a comparative approach this book reviews the development of Community Care policies and the varying strategies pursued internationally. It provides a unique and detailed picture of the history of Community Care policies in Taiwan…[it] illustrates an important contribution that Social Work as a profession can make to understand the policy complexities of community care for older people”
-Professor Christine Bigby,
Director, Living with Disability Research Centre,
La Trobe University, Australia


“This is a masterful piece of research. The critical appraisal of the literature is erudite and clearly articulated. Both quantitative and qualitative data are critically analyzed with considerable insight and depth…the findings are highly significant in the areas of gerontology, social service, public health research, policy and practice.”
-Professor Patricia M. McNamara,
La Trobe University


“This is an original and substantial piece of work demonstrating high-level statistical and theoretical analysis skills...the researcher clearly explains important concepts relevant to the study [such as] the relationships between the elements of social capital and relationships between social capital and wellbeing.
-Professor Yvonne Wells,
La Trobe University

Table of Contents

Abstract
Foreword by Professor Christine Bigby – LaTrobe University
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Care Challenge Caused by Increasing Numbers of Older People
1.2 Importance of Community Care in Taiwan
1.3 Why Social Capital is a Useful Way to Study Community Care
1.4 Why Social Work Needs Social Capital
1.5 Research Gaps and Contributions
1.6 Study Aims

Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 Community Care
2.1.1 Introduction
2.1.2 Definition and history of the development of community care
2.1.3 Community care policy in Taiwan
2.2 Theory of Social Capital
2.2.1 Introduction
2.2.2 Background to social capital
2.2.3 Conceptualisations of social capital
2.2.4 Elements of social capital
2.2.5 Social capital and wellbeing in the aging society
2.3 Overview of Studies on Social Capital and the Health of Older People
2.4 Chapter Summary

Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Background
3.3 Research Design
3.4 Research Participants and Sampling
3.4.1 Research participants
3.4.2 Sample selection criteria
3.4.3 Sample size and sample power
3.4.4 Sample recruitment procedure
3.5 Data Collection Methods and Data Analysis
3.5.1 Data collection methods
3.5.2 Data analysis
3.6 Research Ethics
3.7 Chapter Summary

Chapter 4: Individual-Level Findings Regarding Individual-Level Social Capital and Quality of Life
4.1 Participants’ Characteristics
4.1.1 Gender
4.1.2 Age
4.1.3 Marital status
4.1.4 Living arrangements
4.1.5 First language
4.1.6 Education
4.1.7 Employment
4.1.8 Religion and strength of religious belief
4.1.9 Time lived in the neighbourhood
4.1.10 Use of services provided by community care centres
4.2 Descriptive Results of Individual-Level Social Capital and Quality of Life
4.2.1 Scores of individual-level social capital
4.2.2 Scores of participants’ quality of life
4.3 Exploratory Analysis: Results of Individual-level Social Capital and Quality of Life by Demographic Characteristics (And Group)
4.3.1 Testing normality
4.3.2 Individual-level social capital by participants’ personal characteristics
4.3.3 Analyses of QOL by participants’ personal characteristics
4.4 Results of Hypothesis Testing
4.4.1 H1: Community care centres’ users will have a higher level of individual-level social capital than non-users
4.4.2 H2: Community care centers’ users will have a higher level of Wellbeing than non-users
4.4.3 H3: Participants with a higher level of individual-level social capital Will have a higher level of wellbeing than those with a lower level
4.5 Chapter Summary

Chapter 5: Findings for Organizational Social Capital and Wellbeing
5.1 Characteristics of Community Care Centres
5.1.1 Numbers of employees
5.1.2 volunteer contributions to community care centres
5.1.3 Status of funding
5.1.4 Board members’ qualifications
5.1.5 Descriptive results of organizational-level social capital
5.2 Comparisons of Community Care Centre’s Characteristics
5.3 Exploratory Analysis of Organisational-Level Social Capital and Community Care Centres’ Characteristics
5.3.1 Number of employees
5.3.2 Volunteer contributions to CCCs
5.3.3 Status of funding
5.3.4 Board members qualifications
5.3.5 Comparisons of CCCs characteristics
5.4 Results of Hypothesis Testing
5.5 Chapter Summary

Chapter 6: Multi-Level Results for Individual-level Social Capital, Organizational-Level Social Capital and Wellbeing
6.1 Level One Predictors of Wellbeing
6.2 Multi-Level Analysis for Each Subcategory of Wellbeing
6.3 Overall Relationship between Individual-Level Social Capital, Organisational-Level Social Capital and Quality of Life
6.4 Chapter Summary
6.5 Summary of Quantitative Results

Chapter 7: Experiences of Using or Not Using Community Care Centres
7.1 Community Care Centres’ Users’ Experiences
7.1.1 How community care centres benefit participants’ wellbeing
7.1.2 How community care centres benefit participants’ individual-level social Capital
7.2 Non-Community Care Centres’ Users’ Experiences
7.3 Community Care Centres’ Managers or Social Workers’ Experiences
7.3.1 Strategies used by community care centres managers to encourage Participation
7.3.2 Strategies used by community care centre managers to cooperate with other organisations
7.4 Chapter Summary

Chapter 8: Discussion and Conclusion
8.1 Summary of the Study
8.2 Discussion
8.2.1 Different components of individual capital in Taiwan and Australia
8.2.2 Relationship between older people’s quality of life and their social capital
8.2.3 A simple pathway to a good life: participating in a community care centre
8.3 Limitations and Strengths of the Study
8.4 Future Research Suggestions
8.5 Conclusions
Appendix
Bibliography
Index