a School of Social Work , Adelphi University School of Social Work , Garden City , New York, USA.
b Department of Buddhist Social Welfare , Dongguk University , Korea , Seoul , South Korea.
J Aging Soc Policy. 2019 May-Jun;31(3):197-210. doi: 10.1080/08959420.2019.1578605. Epub 2019 Feb 16.
In Singapore, policy makers expect families to remain actively involved in the care of their frail older relatives, as manifestly expressed in its Many Helping Hands approach to long-term care. To enable families to fulfill this expectation, the government has enacted policies that encourage the hiring of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to complement or supplement informal caregiving efforts. Using the Andersen Behavioral Model, we were interested in identifying caregiver and care receiver characteristics that might predict the hiring of FDWs. With data from a convenience sample of 488 informal caregivers, we ran logistic regression regressing the hiring of an FDW on various predisposing, enabling, and need factors. Of interest, enabling factors such as household income, housing type, and educational level were predictive of hiring an FDW in the home. Only one need factor, time spent in caregiving, was predictive of the increased likelihood to hire an FDW. Policies that encourage the marketization of care are likely to favor those with financial means and inadvertently ignore the caregiving burdens of lower income families. In addition, we suggest research and policies to ensure the well-being and protection of FDWs who have become a key component of the long-term care policy and practice in Singapore.
在新加坡，政策制定者期望家庭积极参与照顾体弱的老年亲属，这在其长期护理的“众人帮手”方法中得到了明显体现。为了使家庭能够满足这一期望，政府制定了鼓励雇佣外籍家庭佣工（FDW）的政策，以补充或辅助非正式护理工作。我们使用安德森行为模型，有兴趣确定照顾者和被照顾者的特征，这些特征可能预示着雇佣 FDW。利用便利样本中 488 名非正式照顾者的数据，我们进行了逻辑回归，将雇佣 FDW 与各种倾向因素、促成因素和需求因素进行回归分析。有趣的是，促成因素，如家庭收入、住房类型和教育水平，可预测在家庭中雇佣 FDW。只有一个需求因素，即照顾时间，预示着雇佣 FDW 的可能性增加。鼓励护理市场化的政策可能有利于那些有经济手段的人，而无意中忽视了低收入家庭的护理负担。此外，我们建议进行研究和制定政策，以确保 FDW 的福祉和保护，他们已成为新加坡长期护理政策和实践的关键组成部分。
