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Objective: To explore how older people manage social support needs when they are childless and living in poverty in the Malaysian context where social policy emphasises family as the primary provider of social support. Methods: Semi‐structured interviews were completed with a purposive sample of 34 childless and older Malaysians living in poverty in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A thematic content analysis focused on their reports of managing social support needs. Results: Key strategies were using existing resources, developing new networks and adjusting expectations. Agency played a vital role in avoiding institutional care. Conclusions: This paper adds to research on childlessness in older age in varied policy and cultural contexts. It challenges assumptions about families providing social support and argues for policies to recognise older people as an individual unit rather than as part of a family to prolong independent living in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The community prevalence of advance care directives (ACD) is low despite known benefits of advance care planning for patients, families and health professionals. Aim: To determine the community prevalence of instructional and appointing ACD in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland and factors associated with completion of these documents. Methods: A telephone survey of adults living in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland (n = 1175) about completion of instructional ACD (making their own decisions about future healthcare) and appointing ACD (appointing another to decide). Quota sampling occurred based on population size by state, gender and age, with oversampling in smaller jurisdictions (Victoria and Queensland). Results: Overall response rate was 33%. Six per cent of respondents reported completing an instructional ACD while 12% reported completing an appointing ACD. Female gender, higher educational level, personal experience of a major health scare and being widowed were significant predictors of completing an instructional ACD. Older age, higher educational level and being widowed were significant predictors of completing an appointing ACD. Conclusions: Despite long‐standing efforts to increase advance care planning, community prevalence of ACD remains low, particularly for instructional ACD. This study found some different predictors for instructional ACD compared with appointing ACD, and also a potential role for experiential factors in triggering uptake. These findings suggest supplementing general community awareness campaigns with more nuanced and targeted efforts to improve ACD completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disability reform in Australia centres on a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which aims to provide lifelong, individualised support based on the principle of 'reasonable and necessary' care. As a universal rights-based scheme it represents a historical shift in allocation principles in Australia's disability policy. Nonetheless, attention will be on determining who receives what care given the diversity of personal and family contexts. The aim of this paper is to discuss the operational complexities of a principle of reasonable and necessary care with reference to the findings of a three-year study on the experiences and perspectives of disability care of 25 adults with acquired disability, their 22 nominated family members and 18 service providers. Evidence from this study suggests enacting the principle of reasonable and necessary care and support will be problematic, in particular as it relates to personalising the level and scope of services, balancing formal and informal care, and principles of equity. The paper contributes to the literature about allocation principles in social policy and the challenges of implementation. Further, it provides an empirically informed discussion of some of the specific policy implementation challenges concerning the NDIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides evidence of the prevalence of wills and the principles underpinning the intended distribution of estates in Australia. Intentions around wealth transfers and the social norms that underpin them occur in the context of predicted extensive intergenerational transfers from the ageing baby boomer generation, policies of self provision and user pays for care in old age, broader views on what constitutes 'family', the increased importance of the not-for-profit sector in the delivery of services, and the related need for philanthropy. A national telephone survey conducted in 2012 with 2,405 respondents aged 18 and over shows that wills are predominantly used to distribute assets to partners and/or equally to immediate descendants. There is little evidence that will makers are recognising a wider group of relationships, obligations and entitlements outside the traditional nuclear family, or that wills are being replaced by other mechanisms of wealth transfer. Only a minority consider bequests to charities as important. These findings reflect current social norms about entitlements to 'family' money, a narrow view of what and who constitutes 'family', limited obligation for testators to recompense individuals or organisations for care and support provided, and limited commitment to charitable organisations and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review aims to identify factors that facilitate the establishment of enduring powers of attorney ( EPOAs), and those that create a barrier to their establishment. The primary aim was to provide guidance about how to encourage future planning while people are cognitively able to make such important decisions. A detailed search of the literature was conducted to identify research looking at the motivating factors behind putting future-planning strategies in place. The literature highlighted a number of broad areas motivating the establishment of EPOAs, including: demographic factors; intrapersonal and personality factors; health and psychological factors; cognitive factors; and socio-emotional factors. While a number of factors play a role in determining whether or not a person establishes an EPOA, the factor most malleable to change is the awareness and knowledge of older adults and their families regarding the utility of EPOAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the experience of family and friends when a young adult goes missing, less is known about how siblings make sense of the experience. Police assistance to locate the missing person may be sought but there is little recognition of going missing or missingness as a social issue, and there is little or no adequate social response to the needs of those left behind. This paper links knowledge of siblings, loss and grief to an understanding of this phenomenon. It presents the methodology and findings of an exploratory, qualitative study into the experiences of nine adult siblings of long-term missing people in Australia and presents the themes drawn from their accounts. The themes are briefly elaborated using direct quotations from participants in the study and represented in a diagram. The paper seeks to develop greater understanding of the inter-relationship between missingness and other social issues, to give voice to the views of participants and to encourage practitioners to engage more purposefully in work with family and friends affected by this issue. Some implications for social work practice are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing longevity and the growing proportion of the aged in the population in most countries have served to focus on the question of how governments and older people can finance living, health, and care options in retirement. Prudent management of income and assets is an increasingly complex and important aspect of aging as assets and expectations of self-financing increase. Although many informal caregivers act as asset managers and/or substitute decision-makers for older people, little attention has been paid to this increasingly important aspect of care. This paper summaries key findings of a broad research program exploring family involvement in the management of older people's assets and the practices that constitute good practice as well as financial mismanagement and abuse. It identifies multi-level and multi-strategy responses needed to address the issues raised by the research and outlines an innovative community demonstration project aimed at improving financial management practices in relation to older people's assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of the financial assets of older people is increasingly important in the current policy context. Competing interests from the state, the market and the family regarding the appropriate use of these assets suggest that non-professional managers are assisting older people in a complex environment. This paper, based on a national prevalence study and an in-depth study, explores the nature and extent of asset management on behalf of older people. It examines the role of legal provision for substitute decision-making in these processes and concludes that the current provision is insufficient to protect older people from financial abuse and support carers to manage assets well. This paper proposes that more broadly based interventions are required in a complex environment of competing interests. Such interventions include attitudinal change, improved financial literacy, information and support for older people and informal asset managers and improved monitoring and support for substitute decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]