Informal Care for Vulnerable Elderly:: Suggestions for Church Involvement

The elderly population in our society has needs which require understanding, advocacy, and service provision. While the formal support system helps in meeting these needs to an extent, it is clearly overburdened and cannot cope with the expanding demand from a continuously growing number of older persons. Thus, the challenge to restructuring society's approach to the delivery of long term care leads one to examine the potential of the informal support system resource pool. While families, as one componenet of this reosurce pool, provide a substantial amount of support to their eldlerly, they themselves need to be supported as well as supplemented. The church can undertake a valuable role by facilitating intiatives to foster and stimulate informal supports and encouraging volunteer support networks.