Community Service Staff Capacity Building and Elders’ Willingness to Age in Place

Abstract It is uncertain how building the elderly service staff’s capacity sustains the elder’s willingness to age in place. This uncertainty concerns how the staff’s capacity building (i.e., capacitation) meets the elder’s care needs. The uncertainty prompts this study to administer a survey of 1,023 elders and a survey of their 138 community service providers in Hong Kong, China. Results show that staff capacitation sustained the elder’s willingness to age in place, particularly when the staff provided more care or the elder used daycare or home care instead of other community services. This sustenance indicates that meeting the elder’s need for care fosters the elder’s willingness to age in place. Results imply that staff capacitation effectively met elders’ care needs to secure their willingness to age in place. Such capacitation can apply particularly to elder caregiving services.