Community care of older people in rural setting: A case study from Slovenia

This essay discusses the organisation of community care for older people in a Slovenian rural municipality categorised as having "low well-being". The case study is part of a wider research project on community care in Slovenia, which aims to explain the differences and similarities in the organisation and quality of care for older people. The case study is a follow-up to the research of a previously established typology of community care in the country, formed by a cluster analysis. A case in a rural setting was selected to assess this typology directly in the field. The various actors were selected by snow-ball sampling and interviewed about the traditional and present forms of caring for older people in the community. Contrary to the typology, the fieldwork results show that institutional forms of care at home and at homes for older people exist in the selected municipality. Considering the particular regional context, the results also show communal cooperation among various formal and informal care-practitioners. Finally, care for older people within a family, which is prevalent in the community, obscures the financial inability of the locals to use some of the forms of service available in the residential community.