Because so many books that capture my other areas of interest is reaching a stack more like a tower, I’m getting a jump early, in this my fifth year heading into the summer months, with my suggested title for “booking up” in the subject area of ageing and longevity. Since 2001, my library of books in this subject area has become quite extensive, with multiple streams of sub-topics from gerontology to gerontechnology, from later life careers to the longevity economy.
However there are many new books I choose to avoid due to the fact that there has been an overdose over the last ten years, such as books on retirement and how about all those titles promoting the secrets of an active Boomer lifestyle. Call me jaded, but enough already. My interests have gravitated to broader, global social issues including the care agenda. Which brings me to the one book I will read this summer.
After two long years of focus on life in the COVID world, where among many files – the care agenda, in all is manifestations, has certainly been at the top of the discussion list with a specific eye on aged care or long-term care, however it’s called.
Central to this discussion – taking into consideration global diverse delivery systems – is the greater exposure on issues of neglect, underfunding, understaffing and inequities or care poverty as Teppo Kröger’s new book frames it.
In addition to a published print version, this book Care Poverty is also available as Open Access. At first glance you might view this book geared to be too academic to read. Try harder. For after all we have witnessed this should be a matter of importance to us all through our life course, to better understand how the care agenda affects us on a continuum of care into later life.
After my first scan of the book in Open Access, I was totally impressed as Teppo Kröger solidly fills in the cracks of conversations and studies on care I’ve sat in on over the past two years. So far the only bone I have to pick with is the use of the term “informal care” which I won’t rant on about here, except to say I prefer it to be called “unpaid family/friend care”. So if you see informal used here, it’s in context of the book as it’s written.
In the chapter following the introduction, Kröger discusses the Concept of Care Poverty, breaking it down into three research areas: “feminist social policy research, gerontological research, and research into poverty and social inequalities”, which really is helpful for an everyday person to further appreciate a wider perspective. But getting to the quick of it, a simple definition is, “where people in need of care do not receive sufficient assistance from either informal or formal sources.”
Before I delve more into the individual chapters that follow on the rates, factors, consequences and social inequalities of care poverty, I move on to the chapter on Long-Term Care Systems. Here Kröger shares details comparing European countries on the issues, and at one point references Canada. While data ranges from 2013 -2019 or prior there are some newer from 2021, which thus makes me ponder more on the COVID effect, which we know all too well of in Canada.
So this is my recommended read for summer 2022 and will comment it on more once I’ve done the deeper dive, as I always look forward to learning more of the bigger picture. At the same time, it will resonate in my head that day to day truth we can all appreciate from statements in the conclusion of the book:
“Like food, water, and shelter, care is a basic human need. No human being can survive without it. Everyone is fully dependent on care at the beginning of their lives.Most of us will also need it at the end of our lives … Currently, no nation appears to be free of care poverty.”
For good measure it might be well worth your time to read, or in my case reread. the 2021 book Neglected No More by André Picard. Picard’s book was short listed as a finalist for the 2021 Donner Book Prize. This down to earth, educational and emotional read with the subtitle The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada’s Elders in the Wake of a Pandemic might encourage you to take a deeper read of Teppo Kröger’s Care Poverty.
