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Essay on Care of Aging Parents
Families tend to create enduring patterns of reciprocal support between older and younger members. Family social care is provided both by younger family members for older family members and by older people for younger. The focus of social care is providing assistance that increases a person's competence and mastery of the environment, rather than increasing his or her dependence. From a life-course perspective, social care begins with nurturing and socializing the young for participation in society. At the other end of the life course, social care provides assistance with tasks of daily living and personal care in cases of extreme disability. The specific type of assistance is determined by the family member's functional ability, living arrangements, and the gender of both caregiver and receiver.
Bound up in these family caregiving contexts are ethical values, issues, and dilemmas. Ethical values (e.g., autonomy, beneficence, justice, fidelity) provide a basis for deciding what a person in a particular situation morally ought to do. A number of ethical issues arise when these values are applied to situations involving the provision of social care by family members. For example, what is the level of cognitive development required for a person to function autonomously? Ethical dilemmas are created by conflicts between ethical values. Should an older person be allowed to continue handling his or her own finances (autonomy) in spite of consistent money mismanagement (nonmaleficence)? In other words, should a person be protected from harm that results from his or her own bad decisions?
Ethical principles not only provide a basis for examining particular types of caregiving by family members but are woven into policies and legislation that influence behavior more broadly and impact U.S. society in general. Thus analytical strategies, models, and paradigms are presented as a basis for decision making on issues related to family social care. This includes assessing how well U.S. society addresses the needs of family caregivers and receivers......
