The Age of Supported Independence: Voices of In-home Care 2010th Edition

“This book present a compelling case for a shift in thinking about the stages of the Third Age. By building on the “voices” of the adults and caregivers who are living in this age of “supported independence,” the authors effectively challenge our current notion of the aging process and the people who are living this experience. Real-world stories and experiences capture the day-to-day challenges for care recipients, caregivers, and extended family. The Age of Supported Independence: Voices of In-Home Care is vitally important as our population worldwide is aging in greater numbers than ever before. It is a highly recommended reading for social workers in the practice, program development, and policy-making arenas.”

International Journal of Social Welfare, volume 21 (2012), p.226

This book investigates the experiences of older people who remain at home with care. It examines the transition points for the important life changes faced by family members who take on a greater care-giving role.

The book draws on demographic analyses and qualitative fieldwork to explore the shift from independence to increasing dependence, and suggests that this transition constitutes movement into a new stage of life, that of an Age of Supported Independence. Applying the anthropological concept of rites of passage in their analysis, the authors focus on the changes in everyday living within the spatial environment of the home, the temporal organization of daily life, and the reshaping of relationships. They suggest that many older people – as well as the family members who become carers – remain in a state of ‘liminality’: unable to make sense of their new situation and experience and, despite assumptions that ageing-in-place sustains social connectedness, excluded from their communities.