Gamla och nya frivillighetsformer : Äldreomsorgshybrider växer fram

Sammanfattning: The interest for voluntary services in elderly care has increased in recent years and some have claimed that new types have emerged within the field. What’s new with these types of services? This licentiate dissertation focuses on the relationship between voluntary services and local authority elderly care in Sweden. In order to understand the transition from the old to the new types of voluntary services the use of an historic perspective is essential. An analysis of this relationship and the characteristics of those newer types of voluntary services that have emerged were carried out utilizing text analyses of official government reports. The study also focuses on the role of the government, how the dividing line between voluntary organizations and local authority elderly care has been negotiated and thus moved over time. The results show that services such as social support to the elderly are in the process of being transferred from some of the local authority organizations to special elderly care hybrid organizations. These are run by local authority employees whose assignment is to organize and recruit members from both voluntary organizations in the social field and from volunteers who do not belong to these voluntary organizations. Social support services to the elderly thus tend to develop their own organizational frameworks. Furthermore the results show that the government has great expectations for the healthy elderly to contribute to the care of their peers in need of support. These expectations are based on a perception that the healthy elderly should take responsibility for their ageing and a conception about them risking becoming lonely and ill if they do not contribute by helping other elderly persons.